The Rebel
by naivekid
Summary: Long Hiatus
1. Chapter 1

**J:** I'm naivekid but I will refer myself as J due to the fact of my real name's initials. This is my first fic. Hopefully you enjoy it. If you don't like the pairings, then don't read. It's that simple.

**Disclaimer:**I do not own Naruto. That is all.

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"Congratulations!" Itachi dodged his mother's hug, causing her to fall face flat on the floor. "Mou, Itachi, can't your mother even hug you?" Itachi just mentally sighed. He should have known that his mother would react this way.

"Smile, Itachi. You're 13 and you're already an ANBU captain. It's a fantastic achievement. You should be proud of yourself,"

"Hn," was his only reply. In Itachi's language, it meant: Leave me alone.

"So cold," his mother said. "Fine, I won't hold you, hurry along now," she said.

Itachi raised his eyebrows in suspicion. Usually his mother would never let him go. Obviously, she was planning something. Something bad. He quickly left to his room. As he walked down the wide corridors, many other clan members bowed to him respectfully. He only got promoted an hour ago. Words do indeed spread fast.

The Uchiha were one of the noble clans, famed for their kekken genkai, the sharingan. For that reason, it was very hard to beat an Uchiha. (Though I personally believe their arrogant attitude will be the thing that leads them to their downfall.) Most Uchihas are arrogant. Still, once in a while, an Uchiha will be born with a slightly different personality. Well, at least some of them. Uchiha Itachi and his mother Uchiha Mikoto were one of those people.

Itachi was slightly different then the rest of his prick of a family (excluding Mikoto). He was much more quiet and rarely voices his opinion. But when he tends to do so, everybody will listen, because his ideas are effective. He hates the way everything is given to him on a golden plate just because he's an Uchiha genius. He'd rather prove himself with hard work.

Mikoto is by far the strangest Uchiha. She can bear no grudges and always have a silly smile plastered on her face. She is currently a retired tokubetsu jonin. She visits the Sandaime when she has time to make sure that the old man hasn't collapse from paperwork.

Aherm, back to the story. As I was saying…

Itachi stopped when he saw his little brother, Sasuke. "Congratulations, onii-san," Itachi patted his brother's head and went to his room. A tiny smile barely seen on his face.

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A girl was sobbing in the corner of an alley. There were numerous scratches, bruises, and cuts on her. Furthermore, she had a swollen lip. She was hugging her knees thinking of what just happened.

Flashback

"Can I play with you?" a little girl hesitantly asked the kids in the playground. When they saw her, they quickly went away. _What did I do wrong?_ She sat on the swing thinking.

Suddenly, a mob of villagers came. They were holding pitchforks and knives, shurikens and kunais. Then, without warning, they attacked her. They laughed at her feeble attempts to protest.

"Die, demon!"

"You took my brother away, for that, you'll pay,"

"Demons should rot in hell and stay there,"

"I'll do ten times worse to you for what you did on my daughter,"

As she was barely 8 years old and has not learned any form of self-defense (as no one wanted to teach her, and the teachers didn't teach her anything in the academy), she was brutally beaten. Then, thinking that she was dead, they threw her to a deserted alley, eliminating all evidence.

Flashback end

On that day, she was hurt more mentally than physically. As she saw a family happily passing by, her heart felt a pang of sadness. There and then, she realized that she would never be one of them. Never.

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**J: **Owari! First chapter. Sorry if it seems too short. I promise I'll update as soon as it rains. Believe it! Dattebayo! I'd figure that I'm going to write this halfway. If nobody likes what I'm writing, I'll probably, as in maybe (depending on my mood) delete it. Okay, I'm having exam next week so wish me luck. Though I'll probably fail History and Geography…

(I update when it rains cause I can't go on the Internet. Stupid lightning and thunder. It's your fault I spoiled 3 modems and got banned from using the computer for such a long time… I mean, I hope you look forward to my next update!)

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J: Hi guys, I decided to stick chapter 1 and 2 together. Sorry if I caused any inconvenience.

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**J: **I'm quite surprise that a lot of people putted this story on their 'story alert' list. For that, I'm truly grateful. I'm also please that my first review is not someone trying to declare how much they hate my fic. Thanks for everyone's support. This early update is for **ksune** who was the first one who review the story. (In your face, Zi Xuan)

I also realized that the last chapter was too short for my taste. I'll expand this one.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. (If I did, jinchuurikis will be getting their revenge…)

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Naru hid behind a large sakura tree, observing a little girl from the academy trying her best to perform henge no jutsu. Over the years, she had learn how to hide from the villagers, thus she was no beginner when it came to stealth.

That is provided she is wise enough to hold back her curiosity, which she always can't seem to do.

_Creak. 'Eep,' _she thought. Her curiosity took over when she saw the little girl turn into a completely different person. She took a step closer and accidentally stepped a dead branch, thus alerting the little girl.

The girl flinched as she heard the sound. Naru watch in fascination as she closed her eyes tightly and started reassuring herself that she wasn't going to die. When she had finally dared to glance at her 'attacker' she sighed in relief, seeing that it was only a girl slightly around her age.

"Hi!" Naru said.

The girl shyly answered, "H-Hello," Naru raised her eyebrow as she saw what little self-confidence the girl possessed. "I'm Uzumaki Naru, and you are?"

"H-Hyuuga H-Hinata,"

_'Okay, this girl seriously needed some confidence boost.' _"Nice meeting you. Mind telling me what you were trying to do?"

"I-I was t-trying to perform the h-henge no jutsu,"

"Oh, what does it do?"

"I-It temporarily changes your appearance into the person you want to change into," Naru nodded her head understandingly.

After debating with herself, her curiosity finally took over. "A-Ano, don't you s-study in the a-academy?"

Naru good-naturedly answered, "Nah, I have no time for that," Truth is the academy was outraged when Naru tried to attend it, all claiming to refuse to teach the 'demon child'. The village council then, once again, overruled the Hokage so he could only watch in regret as Naru plastered on a fake smile saying that she didn't mind. "Ne, Hinata, why aren't you playing with your friends?" Naru asked, curious in why a little girl like her prefer practicing than playing.

"I-I have no f-friends," she sighed sadly. Naru raised an eyebrow, wondering why a sweet girl like her had no playmates. Looking at Naru's expression, she answered the unasked question. "T-They all say t-that I-I'm too s-shy and t-that I'm a-a spoiled H-Hyuuga brat," at this, she broke down and started weeping.

Naru, being a person who understood the feeling of loneliness quite well, immediately felt pity for her. Suddenly, a light bulb appeared beside Naru's hea-, I mean, suddenly she thought out an idea. "Hinata, lets make a deal,"

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Uchiha Fugaku was walking toward Uchiha compound, just coming back from the village council's meeting. Recently, he noticed his son has been taking a lot of S class missions. That alone was not suspicious. However, taking a lot of _solo _S class missions when he knew he was in charge of a whole ANBU team was very suspicious. His son has also rarely seen at home. It was as if he was avoiding it. But no matter how much he racked his brains, he can't find a reason why Itachi would avoid his house.

He stepped in his house just in time to see his wife walking gracefully toward him. They both had no feelings for each other. The only reason they married each other was because their parents had arrange a marriage for them. They had no say in the matter. Both knew perfectly well of the dire consequences if they disobeyed their parents.

Uchiha Mikoto because she once experienced it first-hand as she had an affair with someone outside the clan, and Uchiha Fugaku because he had 'accidentally' killed his little brother due to anger management problems.

Even though they accepted the marriage without protesting doesn't mean that they don't detest each other.

Mikoto because she thinks that Fugaku is a stuck up bastard whereas Fugaku thinks that Mikoto 'does not contain any Uchiha blood in her body, therefore she didn't deserve to be his wife'. They only talk to each other when it concerned of their sons or the clan.

"What," he hissed when he saw Mikoto.

She looked at him with a serious eye. He shuddered a little as he felt her gaze on him. "It's about Itachi,"

"So, you noticed too," It wasn't a question but rather a statement.

She tilted her head a little, "Of course, I am his mother after all," He resisted the urge to glare at her at managed to keep his usual stoic face.

"Lets go to a more private place first," she quickly gestured to their room. They both walked side by side and slid the door open when they reached the room. Mikoto, being the daring person she is, sat down first. Then, Fugaku mirrored her and sat opposite.

"What do you think the problem is?" he asked her haughtily.

"Not enough freedom," she said bluntly._ 'Once again, straight to the point, eh, Mikoto.'_

"I think he needs more pressure, he's too free," He watched in satisfaction as Mikoto narrowed her eyes at him, pleased that he pissed her off.

She stood up and left, before leaving, she said, "I see that we once again have totally different opinions." Fugaku barely suppressed the urge to grin as it was un-Uchiha like and for the clan head to grin would be one of the greatest embarrassments.

"Oh, and one more thing, I will be out for a while tomorrow to see the Hokage," at that, all happy feelings of the clan head disappeared as he could feel a sense of dread towards that matter. Before he could say anything, Mikoto was gone.

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Sasuke raised his eyebrow at the quietness of dinner. Sure he was happy that his brother was back after an S class mission and was able to join dinner but it was just too quiet. His mother hasn't spoken at all except muttered an "Itadakimasu," but that was all. And that was alone was freaking him out. He then decided that he would rather have a loud mother than a quiet one.

On the other hand, he had caught his father occasionally sneak some glances at his mother. He looked nervous. As a kid, he didn't know much but he had come to a conclusion that they had relationship problems and had promptly wondered in fear if they were going to have a divorce like Aya Takina, his classmate's parents did.

Throughout dinner, Itachi just remained his usual stoic self and was thinking if he should quit being an ANBU captain and become a hunter-nin instead, so he could do more solo missions and have more freedom.

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Hinata happily, greeted Neji when she saw him. Neji eyes soften as he saw how happy she seems to be. "Hinata-sama, did something happen today?"

Surprisingly, she replied without her usual stutter, "Hai," and proceeded in walking to her room with a smile plastered on her face. Neji just shook her head and tried to come up with reasons in why she was acting that way.

Hinata was in her room when she laid down on her futon, thinking back of what just occurred an hour ago.

Flashback

"Hinata, let's make a deal," Hinata shyly glanced up at Naru curious and wanting to know what she's going to say. Seeing that she fully had Hinata's attention, she then continued. "If you teach me what the academy teaches you then I'll help you practice and try to gain more confidence," Hinata eyes widened at that.

"Y-You'll h-help me?" her eyes full of hope.

"Course, but you'll have to help me too," Naru grinned.

"Arigatou," she said, truly happy.

"Well, just because you're my friend doesn't mean I'll go easy on you," Naru said. If possible, Hinata eyes shot open. "I-I'm your friend?" "Course, what did you think?"

Without hesitation, Hinata flung herself at Naru, and repeatedly said "Thank you,"

Naru just smiled, "We'll meet here tomorrow at 10 in the morning, ok?" Hinata just nodded.

"I'll be here tomorrow, I promise," and they left after saying their goodbyes.

Flashback end

"Hinata-sama, dinners ready," Hinata nodded at Neji still happy. The memory of her conversation with Naru still on her mind. She knew that going to the sakura tree instead of the usual training grounds was a wise decision as she wanted a change of scenery as most of the training grounds were already occupied.

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**J: **I'm quite surprise that a lot of people putted this story on their 'story alert' list. For that, I'm truly grateful. I'm also please that my first review is not someone trying to declare how much they hate my fic. Thanks for everyone's support. This early update is for **ksune** who was the first one who review the story. (In your face, Zi Xuan)

I also realized that the last chapter was too short for my taste. I'll expand this one.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. (If I did, jinchuurikis will be getting their revenge…)

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**J: **That seriously took a long time. It's a real pain to write the stuttering. I'll change that. Hinata will most probably be Naru's best friend. I can't wait to write the conversation between Mikoto and the Hokage. Just a hint but she is going to request him of something. If you manage to figure it out, then I'll promise to update again _tomorrow. _And I never break a promise, dattebayo!

On the other hand, thank you so far for the support. I was very nervous when I saw I received a review, I thought someone was going to start criticizing me… Well…be grateful to God that it rained.

I'm still holding my promise. If anybody **guessed right **the request Mikoto asks of the Hokage, I'll write chapter 3 whether it rains or not.


	2. Chapter 2

**J: **Nobody guessed right, so I didn't update but since God loves you (it's raining now) so much, I'll update. I have a plot and my brain tells me that this is going to be a long story that is unless you guys don't want me to continue…

Ok, help me out here. Give me a pairing for Hinata. Just no Sasuke or Neji. I vote for Shikamaru or maybe Shino. I don't know why, maybe I want to try something new…Oh and one last thing, I'm so sorry. I went to read chapter 2 and I found out that there were tons of mistakes. Gomenasai, I promise that I'll triple check before posting it.

Here goes…

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto. (If I did, Naruto will not be so naïve to think that Konoha will truly accepts him, even though they did, there's still got to be a handful of people who hates him…)

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Chapter 3

Naru shouted in triumphant as she finally got the hang of henge no jutsu. Hinata clapped encouragingly looking at her blonde friend. They have been together for two weeks and Hinata had lost her stuttering, much to Hiashi, her father's surprise, though he hid it well, he was proud of her. "Congratulations, Naru." To say that Hinata was impressed will be an understatement. She had just shown Naru an hour ago and she had already got the hang of it.

"Yosh, we'll celebrate with ramen," said Naru. Hinata shook her head in amusement. After hanging out with Naru for a few hours, she had already figured out Naru's addiction to ramen. The two friends headed out to Ichiraku's, as always. "One of everything please," said Naru. "Erm, a miso ramen for me please," Hinata said. Naru look at her and started her lecture about how you should eat ramen and saying that you have to eat a lot to enjoy food. Hinata could only be seen sweat dropping in the background.

After the order arrived, Naru ate bowl after bowl and Hinata lost her appetite after seeing her friend eat what to be presumed the 24th bowl. She swears that if her house cook cooked ramen for dinner, she'll vomit on the spot. After eating, both of them parted ways. Hinata back to her clan compound whereas Naru back to training. Both promised to meet each other again tomorrow.

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Naru was happy that she finally got the hang of that jutsu. She was heading to training ground 7 when she stumbled across a little boy crying. Just when she was about to comfort the kid, a woman screamed saying, "The demon is attacking the child," that caught the attention of the villagers in hearing distance. Without hesitation, they randomly grabbed a weapon and started advancing toward Naru. She quickly ran as far away as possible, but was quickly overtaken by a chuunin who used his fist and pummeled her to the ground. Thus, the beating began.

Naru had trouble breathing. It seems that a kunai had ran through her right lung. She didn't try to protest as the villagers began hitting harder than before. She had no energy to even scream. She didn't want to die. Not after she made a friend. She struggled to hold on to her lifeline. She could feel her hand slipping_. 'Am I going to die?'_ and she lost her consciousness.

She opened her eyes and found herself in a sewer. _'I wonder if I'm in hell, cause this stinky old place is definitely not heaven.'_ Once again, her curiosity took over and she started exploring the place. After a while, she found herself standing in front of a large metal gate. In the middle of a gate was a seal. Being the naïve kid that thought this was hell, Naru came to the conclusion that it was shinigami's house.

Naru was getting frustrated. One could hear her muttering, "Stupid shinigami. Which idiot owns a house but not a doorbell," Finally, she snapped out of her polite attitude and started banging the gate, hard. A growl was heard. "Oh, it's the watchdog. I didn't know that shinigami owned a dog,"

At this, Kyuubi couldn't help but twitch. **_'Watchdog? Shinigami?'_** Finally, he lost his patience when his vessel started to scream with her loud voice. **_'I swear that the kid's lung is damn powerful.'_**

Unwillingly, Kyuubi woke up from his sleep. He walked forward and stared at Naru with his big eyes. Still, Naru showed no fear towards his intense gaze. "Ano, watchdog-san, is shinigami home?" Kyuubi started twitching slightly after hearing that statement. **"Foolish human, I an The Great Kyuubi No Youko."** Naru tilted her head in confusion. Since she didn't attend school, she didn't know who Kyuubi was.

Kyuubi sigh, might as well give up scaring this dense girl. **"I was the one who attacked your village 8 years ago. As no living human can ever succeed in killing a bijuu, your village leader, the Yondaime Hokage sealed me in an infant's stomach, who is now you." **Naru nodded, seeing as she understands. I mean, who doesn't know who the Yondaime Hokage is.

"Does that mean this is not shinigami's house?" Kyuubi started twitching. **_'How stupid is my vessel?'_ "Damn straight!" **Suddenly, realization dawned Naru as her brain finally figured it out. She walked through the gate (since she was thin enough) and went behind Kyuubi.

Before Kyuubi could say anything, she stomped his 9 tails with both her feet. One by one. Kyuubi howled in pain. "This is for making my life miserable." Naru said in a firm voice. "**Fine, I'm sorry kit and never do that again. A fox's tail is very important. It signifies a lot."** "Like what?" **"I'll tell you next time,"** "Lazy fox," Naru muttered. Kyuubi made no comment seeing it was too troublesome.

**"Back to the situation,"** Naru, aware of the serious tone in Kyuubi's voice, paid full attention. "There is currently a mob of villagers trying to kill you." "And?" twitch **"I'm going to lend you my chakra to fend them off,"** "Why are you helping me?"** "Kit, you die I die, simple as that, besides, I owe you for the last 8 years,"** Naru's eyes soften at that statement.

**"To use my chakra, simply concentrate. You had some practice with that Hinata girl so you'll be fine," **If she was scared, Naru didn't show it. She nodded her head showing that she understood, and then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she woke up, she found herself once again facing the villagers.

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Naru growled, warning them to back off. Being the idiots they were, they heed her no attention. _'Well, I tried,_' Naru mentally shrugged. She let out a burst of killing intent. The villagers froze up, each starting to regret trying to kill her.** "Hesitation is not the key to survival in the shinobi world,"**

And then, for the villagers (and that chuunin), all they saw was a burst of demonic chakra and before they could even say, "The demon is freeing itself," their throats were slit open, the culprit being Uzumaki (Kazama) Naru, who held no regrets for what she had done.

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The Sandaime Hokage sigh at what he had just seen in his crystal ball. True, the villagers deserved to die, but he couldn't help but feel a little responsible for their deaths. He understood very well that Naru needed someone to fend for her, as she was too young to start fighting all her battles. Kids her age should be at home receiving love from their families. Though he had to admit, the solution to this problem came from an unexpected source…

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Upon seeing her husband leave for the usual clan meeting, Uchiha Mikoto hurried out towards the Hokage tower. Using her chakra, she swiftly jumped roof after roof, maintaining her balance. Soon, she saw herself in front of the Hokage's door.

She quickly knocks on the door. "Come in," she hurried inside. "Hi, old man. Just came to check on you," Mikoto glance around as she can't seem to find the Hokage. "Old man? You there?" "I'm here, behind the stack of paperwork," Mikoto giggled as she saw the Hokage's facial expression. "Tons of work, huh?" The Hokage sigh, "Sometimes I wonder why I even wanted this job,"

"Erm, old man, I'm here to talk to you about Itachi's situation," The Sandaime nodded his head, "Ah yes, the Uchiha prodigy. I forgot to congratulate you. He passed the exam with flying colors," Mikoto took a deep breath, "I'm going to be blunt about this. I want Itachi to be pulled out of ANBU." Sarutobi raised his eyebrows upon that. "Why?" "The clan, as in Fugaku-teme, is planning on putting more pressure on him, bounding hi to the clan's arrogant ways."

"Everybody knows that they just want to use him to make the Uchiha clan powerful. As his mother I will not stand for it. Can you please assigned him to another job. One that will take a long time to complete. An A or maybe S-rank…" The Sandaime Hokage sat in silence, trying to think of a job that fits that description.

He looked at Mikoto. He'd been her sensei when she was labeled weak by the Uchiha clan. Still, she showed them. After training under him, she quickly rose to jonin rank and soon started to kick some stuck ups in her clan. She was like the daughter he would never have.

"Ah, Huraka-san (his secretary), please get Uchiha Itachi for me," A pause. "Hai," "Mikoto, I'll assign him to a 4 years long A-rank mission. You better leave now in case he sees you," And so, before she could ask what the mission was, she got 'kicked out' of the Hokage tower. "Damn that old man," she muttered.

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He was wandering around the streets when an ANBU caught up with him. "Uchiha-taicho, Hokage-sama has requested for your presence," Itachi could just shake his head at all the formalities that Hatake Kakashi was giving. He nodded and followed Kakashi to see the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, you were looking for me?" Sarutobi nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Itachi, I want you to quit ANBU,"

"Why would you do that, Hokage-sama? Itachi-taicho is doing well here in ANBU," said Kakashi, who hasn't left the office after dropping Itachi. "It isn't about his work. I know that he's a valuable asset to our shinobi force but…" Sarutobi hesitated, would Mikoto kill him if he told Itachi that it was originally her idea? Since he already said it half way, might as well tell him.

"You mother Mikoto, requested you to be pull out of ANBU," Shocked, Itachi asked, "Why? I thought she was proud that I became ANBU captain." Kakashi glanced at Sandaime Hokage, waiting for his answer. "In short, your father wants to use you to make the Uchiha clan more fearful, thus making you bound to their rules. So, before he makes a move, I will pull you out to complete a 4 years long A-rank mission,"

Itachi was pissed at the whole clan (excluding Shisui, Mikoto and Sasuke), whom do they think they are to bound someone who has their own will. "Hokage-sama, I've decided. I would like to quit ANBU and take that A-rank mission," Ignoring Kakashi's feeble attempts to protest, he walked forward to accept the mission.

"Uchiha Itachi, you are to guard Uzumaki Naru 24/7 and make sure she receives minimum harm," Well, the mission was unexpected, but who was he to defy the orders of the Hokage? He personally held no grudge to the little girl, it's just that he had never come to any contact with her. If he knew this was going to happen, he should have taken a day off to get to know her. Still, if it meant avoiding the clan, he'd gladly comply. _'Arigatou, kaa-san,'_

"Your mission will start tomorrow at 5 in the morning," Itachi mentally groaned. Despite being ANBU, he was definitely not a morning person. "You may leave now," Before leaving, Itachi walked in front of Kakashi and place a hand own his shoulder, "Nice working with you," and with a swirl of leaves, he left. Kakashi didn't feel so bad now. I mean, worse come to worse, he cam always check upon his now ex ANBU-taicho. He smirked a little at that thought.

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**J: **Finally done! You guys had better be thankful. Next chapter is about Itachi meeting Naru. Tell me if you want them to leave and train or stay in Konoha…to train. Don't look at me that way, Naru has to learn how to protect herself somehow. I hope you look forward to the next chapter.

I'm not going to update so early cause I'm having my second exam in school. It'll probably be updated next week though. Once again, thanks for the support and remember to tell me about your ideal Hinata pairing.


	3. Chapter 3

**J: **Nobody guessed right, so I didn't update but since God loves you (it's raining now) so much, I'll update. I have a plot and my brain tells me that this is going to be a long story that is unless you guys don't want me to continue…

Ok, help me out here. Give me a pairing for Hinata. Just no Sasuke or Neji. I vote for Shikamaru or maybe Shino. I don't know why, maybe I want to try something new…Oh and one last thing, I'm so sorry. I went to read chapter 2 and I found out that there were tons of mistakes. Gomenasai, I promise that I'll triple check before posting it.

Here goes…

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto. (If I did, Naruto will not be so naïve to think that Konoha will truly accepts him, even though they did, there's still got to be a handful of people who hates him…)

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Chapter 3

Naru shouted in triumphant as she finally got the hang of henge no jutsu. Hinata clapped encouragingly looking at her blonde friend. They have been together for two weeks and Hinata had lost her stuttering, much to Hiashi, her father's surprise, though he hid it well, he was proud of her. "Congratulations, Naru." To say that Hinata was impressed will be an understatement. She had just shown Naru an hour ago and she had already got the hang of it.

"Yosh, we'll celebrate with ramen," said Naru. Hinata shook her head in amusement. After hanging out with Naru for a few hours, she had already figured out Naru's addiction to ramen. The two friends headed out to Ichiraku's, as always. "One of everything please," said Naru. "Erm, a miso ramen for me please," Hinata said. Naru look at her and started her lecture about how you should eat ramen and saying that you have to eat a lot to enjoy food. Hinata could only be seen sweat dropping in the background.

After the order arrived, Naru ate bowl after bowl and Hinata lost her appetite after seeing her friend eat what to be presumed the 24th bowl. She swears that if her house cook cooked ramen for dinner, she'll vomit on the spot. After eating, both of them parted ways. Hinata back to her clan compound whereas Naru back to training. Both promised to meet each other again tomorrow.

lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala

Naru was happy that she finally got the hang of that jutsu. She was heading to training ground 7 when she stumbled across a little boy crying. Just when she was about to comfort the kid, a woman screamed saying, "The demon is attacking the child," that caught the attention of the villagers in hearing distance. Without hesitation, they randomly grabbed a weapon and started advancing toward Naru. She quickly ran as far away as possible, but was quickly overtaken by a chuunin who used his fist and pummeled her to the ground. Thus, the beating began.

Naru had trouble breathing. It seems that a kunai had ran through her right lung. She didn't try to protest as the villagers began hitting harder than before. She had no energy to even scream. She didn't want to die. Not after she made a friend. She struggled to hold on to her lifeline. She could feel her hand slipping_. 'Am I going to die?'_ and she lost her consciousness.

She opened her eyes and found herself in a sewer. _'I wonder if I'm in hell, cause this stinky old place is definitely not heaven.'_ Once again, her curiosity took over and she started exploring the place. After a while, she found herself standing in front of a large metal gate. In the middle of a gate was a seal. Being the naïve kid that thought this was hell, Naru came to the conclusion that it was shinigami's house.

Naru was getting frustrated. One could hear her muttering, "Stupid shinigami. Which idiot owns a house but not a doorbell," Finally, she snapped out of her polite attitude and started banging the gate, hard. A growl was heard. "Oh, it's the watchdog. I didn't know that shinigami owned a dog,"

At this, Kyuubi couldn't help but twitch. **_'Watchdog? Shinigami?'_** Finally, he lost his patience when his vessel started to scream with her loud voice. **_'I swear that the kid's lung is damn powerful.'_**

Unwillingly, Kyuubi woke up from his sleep. He walked forward and stared at Naru with his big eyes. Still, Naru showed no fear towards his intense gaze. "Ano, watchdog-san, is shinigami home?" Kyuubi started twitching slightly after hearing that statement. **"Foolish human, I an The Great Kyuubi No Youko."** Naru tilted her head in confusion. Since she didn't attend school, she didn't know who Kyuubi was.

Kyuubi sigh, might as well give up scaring this dense girl. **"I was the one who attacked your village 8 years ago. As no living human can ever succeed in killing a bijuu, your village leader, the Yondaime Hokage sealed me in an infant's stomach, who is now you." **Naru nodded, seeing as she understands. I mean, who doesn't know who the Yondaime Hokage is.

"Does that mean this is not shinigami's house?" Kyuubi started twitching. **_'How stupid is my vessel?'_ "Damn straight!" **Suddenly, realization dawned Naru as her brain finally figured it out. She walked through the gate (since she was thin enough) and went behind Kyuubi.

Before Kyuubi could say anything, she stomped his 9 tails with both her feet. One by one. Kyuubi howled in pain. "This is for making my life miserable." Naru said in a firm voice. "**Fine, I'm sorry kit and never do that again. A fox's tail is very important. It signifies a lot."** "Like what?" **"I'll tell you next time,"** "Lazy fox," Naru muttered. Kyuubi made no comment seeing it was too troublesome.

**"Back to the situation,"** Naru, aware of the serious tone in Kyuubi's voice, paid full attention. "There is currently a mob of villagers trying to kill you." "And?" twitch **"I'm going to lend you my chakra to fend them off,"** "Why are you helping me?"** "Kit, you die I die, simple as that, besides, I owe you for the last 8 years,"** Naru's eyes soften at that statement.

**"To use my chakra, simply concentrate. You had some practice with that Hinata girl so you'll be fine," **If she was scared, Naru didn't show it. She nodded her head showing that she understood, and then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she woke up, she found herself once again facing the villagers.

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Naru growled, warning them to back off. Being the idiots they were, they heed her no attention. _'Well, I tried,_' Naru mentally shrugged. She let out a burst of killing intent. The villagers froze up, each starting to regret trying to kill her.** "Hesitation is not the key to survival in the shinobi world,"**

And then, for the villagers (and that chuunin), all they saw was a burst of demonic chakra and before they could even say, "The demon is freeing itself," their throats were slit open, the culprit being Uzumaki (Kazama) Naru, who held no regrets for what she had done.

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The Sandaime Hokage sigh at what he had just seen in his crystal ball. True, the villagers deserved to die, but he couldn't help but feel a little responsible for their deaths. He understood very well that Naru needed someone to fend for her, as she was too young to start fighting all her battles. Kids her age should be at home receiving love from their families. Though he had to admit, the solution to this problem came from an unexpected source…

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Upon seeing her husband leave for the usual clan meeting, Uchiha Mikoto hurried out towards the Hokage tower. Using her chakra, she swiftly jumped roof after roof, maintaining her balance. Soon, she saw herself in front of the Hokage's door.

She quickly knocked on the door.

"Come in," she hurried inside.

"Hi, old man. Just came to check on you," Mikoto glance around as she can't seem to find the Hokage. "Old man? You there?"

"I'm here, behind the stack of paperwork," Mikoto giggled as she saw the Hokage's facial expression. "Tons of work, huh?"

The Hokage sigh, "Sometimes I wonder why I even wanted this job,"

"Erm, old man, I'm here to talk to you about Itachi's situation,"

The Sandaime nodded his head, "Ah yes, the Uchiha prodigy. I forgot to congratulate you. He passed the exam with flying colors,"

Mikoto took a deep breath, "I'm going to be blunt about this. I want Itachi to be pulled out of ANBU."

Sarutobi raised his eyebrows upon that. "Why?"

"The clan, as in Fugaku-teme, is planning on putting more pressure on him, bounding him to the clan's arrogant ways." she told him. "Everybody knows that they just want to use him to make the Uchiha clan powerful. As his mother I will not stand for it. Can you please assigned him to another job? One that will take a long time to complete. An A or maybe S-rank…" The Sandaime Hokage sat in silence, trying to think of a job that fits that description.

He looked at Mikoto. He'd been her sensei when she was labeled weak by the Uchiha clan. Still, she showed them. After training under him, she quickly rose to jonin rank and soon started to kick some stuck ups in her clan. She was like the daughter he never had.

"Ah, Huraka-san (his secretary), please get Uchiha Itachi for me," A pause.

"Hai," "Mikoto, I'll assign him to a 4 years long A-rank mission. You better leave now in case he sees you," And so, before she could ask what the mission was, she got 'kicked out' of the Hokage tower.

"Damn that old man," she muttered.

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He was wandering around the streets when an ANBU caught up with him. "Uchiha-taicho, Hokage-sama has requested for your presence," Itachi could just shake his head at all the formalities that Hatake Kakashi was giving. He nodded and followed Kakashi to see the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, you were looking for me?"

Sarutobi nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Itachi, I want you to quit ANBU,"

"Why would you do that, Hokage-sama? Itachi-taicho is doing well here in ANBU," said Kakashi, who hadn't left the office after dropping Itachi.

"It isn't about his work. I know that he's a valuable asset to our shinobi force but…" Sarutobi hesitated, would Mikoto kill him if he told Itachi that it was originally her idea? Since he already said it half way, might as well tell him.

"You mother Mikoto, requested you to be pull out of ANBU,"

Shocked, Itachi asked, "Why? I thought she was proud that I became ANBU captain." Kakashi glanced at Sandaime Hokage, waiting for his answer.

 "In short, your father wants to use you to make the Uchiha clan more fearful, thus making you bound to their rules. So, before he makes a move, I will pull you out to complete a 4 years long A-rank mission," the Sandaime said.

Itachi was pissed at the whole clan (excluding Shisui, Mikoto and Sasuke), who do they think they are to bound someone who has their own will. "Hokage-sama, I've decided. I would like to quit ANBU and take that A-rank mission," Ignoring Kakashi's feeble attempts to protest, he walked forward to accept the mission.

"Uchiha Itachi, you are to guard Uzumaki Naru 24/7 and make sure she receives minimum harm," Well, the mission was unexpected, but who was he to defy the orders of the Hokage? He personally held no grudge to the little girl, it's just that he had never come to any contact with her. If he knew this was going to happen, he should have taken a day off to get to know her. Still, if it meant avoiding the clan, he'd gladly comply. _'Arigatou, kaa-san,'_

"Your mission will start tomorrow at 5 in the morning," Itachi mentally groaned. Despite being ANBU, he was definitely not a morning person. "You may leave now," Before leaving, Itachi walked in front of Kakashi and place a hand own his shoulder, "Nice working with you," and with a swirl of leaves, he left. Kakashi didn't feel so bad now. I mean, worse come to worse, he cam always check upon his now ex ANBU-taicho. He smirked a little at that thought.

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**J: **Finally done! You guys had better be thankful. Next chapter is about Itachi meeting Naru. Tell me if you want them to leave and train or stay in Konoha…to train. Don't look at me that way, Naru has to learn how to protect herself somehow. I hope you look forward to the next chapter.

I'm not going to update so early cause I'm having my second exam in school. It'll probably be updated next week though. Once again, thanks for the support and remember to tell me about your ideal Hinata pairing.


	4. Chapter 4

**J: **Thanks for the reviews guys, and for the record, I'm 12! Surprised? I'm going to be 13 on October. 13 is considered old you know. I want to stay 12 forever. Sigh, though it's impossible… I haven't failed any subject yet! Yay me! Ok, I'm going to explain a little more about the training trip and some other things in this chapter. Then, in the next chapter…

**Ayumi: **J, you're not supposed to tell them. Ayumi's tired, how about we go get some sleep while the readers enjoy the story.

**J:** OK. Please continue supporting me and enjoy this chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke would die.

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Chapter 5

"Prick,"

"Hn,"

"Pocky freak,"

Twitch. "Hn,"

"Arrogant yarou,"

"Hn,"

"Hentai,"

That was the last straw. "Uzumaki Naru, do 1000 sit ups and push ups," Naru's mouth hung open gaping like a fish after Itachi said that. Hinata sigh. Her friend had just been released out of the hospital two days ago and had been having a one sided quarrel with Itachi when she had the chance. At first, she had cheerfully declare that she will make Itachi open more but when Itachi made a comment about her obsession with ramen…

Flashback

"Finally, I'm free. Free of the walls that kept me from reuniting with my ramen," Itachi had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. He had only known the blond for less than a day but he felt he'd known her for more than a year. He took out a box of pocky and started to chew on it, savoring the heavenly taste of-

Snatch.

"What's this?" asked Naru, as she stole the pocky stick away from the unsuspecting Uchiha. She bit into it. "Hmm, I give it a 8/10, it doesn't taste so bad. Still, ramen is better," Uchiha Itachi glared at her. His precious pocky just got stolen. Inner Itachi wrapped his hands in glee as he thought of a plan to annoy the blond.

"Since we're training, we have to keep a healthy diet," he told Hinata and Naru, but you could detect the underlying tone that he was talking more to Naru than Hinata as Hinata already had a balance diet. "That means, you are only permitted to eat ramen once a month," said Itachi to Naru.

"Ain't gonna to listen to ya," said Naru, looking determined. "Nothing, I repeat nothing separates me and my ramen," she said glaring at Itachi. Itachi just shrugged it off. Naru then proceeded in pulling Itachi to the Hokage tower demanding the Hokage to correct this injustice. All the way, glaring daggers at her new bodyguard. Hinata followed them, as she had nothing in mind to do but silently kept out of their way.

Suddenly, "Ramen is nothing compared to pocky," Hinata slapped her palm to her forehead. The situation became worse as Naru redouble her pace to the Hokage's office while randomly throwing some curses at Itachi. _'This is definitely something I need to get use to,' _as she hopped faster towards the direction of her best friend.

Flashback end

The result was the Hokage allowing Naru to continue her…habit but she had to reduce the number of bowls. Needless to say, Itachi wasn't really happy. Naru groaned a little and Hinata was just happy that the whole thing was over.

Hinata shook her head at the memory as she focused back to her training. She could feel Itachi boring his eyes on her back. Thump. She once again fell down. Itachi-sensei had instructed her to do a chakra control exercise. Climbing trees. Not far from her, Naru wasn't faring well. Her chakra control was worse than Hinata. Hinata, seeing her friend's determination, focused back on her training. She'll make sure that the Hyuuga clan regrets kicking her out.

Itachi was in admiration at the will power Naru had over Hinata. Though it was painfully obvious that Hinata's chakra control was much better than Naru. _'Probably_ _because she has a smaller chakra reserve than Naru,'_ thought Itachi as he winced a little when Naru fell down again. He already lost count when Naru fall down 32 times. Suddenly, "I reached," Itachi turned around to see Hinata sitting on top of the tree branch. She had just reached the top and was quite happy that she finally got the exercise down.

Itachi turned to see the reaction of Naru. Though she was hiding her face with her blonde locks, he could have sworn he saw a look of envy and an awed expression her. He came to the conclusion that she was hurt because her friend finished it before her but she was proud of her friend. "I will not lose to you Hinata," said Naru and Itachi watch as Naru redoubled her efforts and tried harder.

The sun was setting; Hinata could be seen practicing her clan's ultimate attack, Jyuuken. Her sensei Itachi had went to stock up on Pocky. Once in a while, she could hear a thump coming from when Naru fell down. Hinata winced as she heard the familiar sound. When she offered to help, Naru declined saying that the result of her training will be more satisfying if she trained by herself.

Naru channeled her chakra to her feet. She didn't understand. What was she doing wrong? She focused more. She knew that she had a huge chakra reserve, so… She finally understood. She ran forward up the tree, holding the precise chakra at her feet. Soon, she reached the top. "Yatta! I did it!" she said happily. Hinata looked at her friend with joy, she finally succeeded. Suddenly, she fell down.

Just because she finished the exercise doesn't mean she mastered it. As she was busy congratulating herself, she forgot to focus on her chakra. So, here she was falling fast. She braced herself waiting for the pain but it didn't come because Itachi caught her. She smiled, "Itachi, I did it," and she fainted from chakra exhaustion. Itachi was smiling inwardly at her, as Hinata was letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

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Time skip one year

Naru yawned. "Oyasumi Hinata, Itachi," She smiled a little when she heard Itachi response back to her. "Good night," he said softly, but due to her advance senses, she picked it up. Hinata nodded, too tired to reply. They had once again trained like hell and Naru wanted a good night's rest for tomorrow. Itachi had calmly declared that they would be leaving the village to train for three years. Naru was furious that she wasn't informed earlier but when she complained, he 'asked' her to double her training regimen.

She had merged with Kyuubi on her last birthday and now has advance senses. She was also the proud summon for foxes. She being the first ever human to have ever sign it. She crawled into her tent and slept. Tomorrow will definitely be a long day for her. She fixed herself into a comfortable position and fell into a blissful sleep.

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Hinata always considered herself as an unlucky person. That was until she met Naru. After a ride on an emotion roller coaster, she promptly found herself training in the fame Forest Of Death. If you asked her a few months ago if she will dare to venture near the Forest Of Death, she will turn pale and probably faint. That was not the case right now as you could see a certain ex-Hyuuga heiress sitting comfortably facing a fire she made with a Katon jutsu from her arsenal.

Hinata stared at the fire, feeling memories resurfaced. She remembered shouting in joy when she found out that her chakra affirminity was water. She had always admired the Nidaime Hokage for his astounding control over water and she had always yearned to learn and battle with that flexible element. Other than that, she also had the chakra affirminity for earth. That which she took pride in learning more jutsu for those two elements.

Naru had three chakra affirminity as her paper was torn into half, crumpled and burned (wind, lightning and fire). Hinata could have sworn she saw Itachi twitch a little and muttering something that sounded oddly like, "How could she have the same amount of chakra affirminity like me?" And since then, they had been learning a few low rank jutsu of that certain category while Itachi focused more on their chakra control, strength, stamina and basics.

Over the years, Hinata discovered that living in the Forest Of Death wasn't so bad. I mean, yeah, at first you risk getting eaten alive by some huge snakes and other deadly creatures but after a while, you're cool. Though she had a suspicion to where Naru bought her the snakeskin wallet for her birthday. When she asked, Naru said that she ahemstoleahem it.

The Forest Of Death was also a good place to spar, as it was an open space. They still haven't found all of their kunais yet but they're working on it.

Itachi glanced at Hinata who had once again yawned. "If you're sleepy, you could go to sleep," he said. Over the years, he had developed a sense of protection towards both of his students, though he would die before admitting it out loud.

"Hai, oyasumi, Itachi-nii," and she went to her own tent, leaving Itachi by himself. Hinata had decided to call him Itachi-nii as she had always wanted a brother whereas Naru had remain calling him Itachi (or Itachi sensei when he was training her, same goes to Hinata), saying that he doesn't deserve too much respect. Obviously, she still held a grudge against him for the "Ramen Incident'. Still, they were on friendly term and were good friends though both were too stubborn to admit it.

The ramen problem was solved for Naru when they would once in a week (all under henge) go back to the village to buy necessities (though its mostly ramen for Naru and Pocky for Itachi). Once in a while, Kakashi would drop by for a visit to see how they're faring. Let's just say that when Hinata and Naru saw a certain orange book that Kakashi was holding…

Kakashi ended up in the hospital for months.

And now, they were ready to further their training and come back in 3 years time.

The next day…

"Konoha look out! The next time you see Uzumaki Naru, she is so going to be kicking ass,"

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**J:** Sorry guys, I know the chapter's short but I had to stop there. I'll time skip their train but don't worry. Once in a while, I'll flashback. Once again, sorry for the short chapter. Gomenasai! I'll do the next chapter as fast as I can. Yakusoku, I promise.

**Ayumi:** Ayumi also wants to apologize for not asking J to write more. Don't worry dear loyal readers. I'll nag her more often now.

**J: **A special thanks to…

**Lady Shadow Of Time:**I love your enthusiasm!

**Sabaku no -X-Temari-X-**: Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

**hejen88:** I'm…flattered that you think I'm 15/16…Erm, does that mean I'm smart for my age? Haha

Signing off…till next time.


	5. Chapter 5

**J:** Hey guys! Just warning you, the relationship between Itachi and Naru won't be fast cause the story is kind of long. I mean, one finds it hard to express feeling where as the other is just too…dense Oh, and I laugh myself silly when I thought of the way Itachi realizes his feelings.

**Ayumi:** Ayumi was there when the plot bunnies attacked her! Ayumi wondered at that time if J had gone mad.

**J:** Ayumi! (blush) Anyway, I won't keep you longer cause I know that some of you hate it when author's ramble.

**Disclaimer:**I do not own Naruto. If I did, Sakura would die in a really horrible way.

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**Chapter 6**

"UCHIHA MIKOTO!! HOW DARE YOU!!" roared Fugaku.

He had just been told that Mikoto requested for a special mission for Itachi. He was currently training the 'demon' and the ex-Hyuuga heiress, the clan whom he detested the most. Mikoto winced as she listened to Fugaku rambling on about how important Itachi was to the clan

She had enough. "REPUTATION! Is that all you care? Don't you want your sons to be happy?" Fugaku was shocked at that outburst. Mikoto never raised her voice before. He walked out of the room with his head held up high. Mikoto may have won this round but she definitely won't win the next for he had a scheme to act.

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Sasuke could hear his soft dejected footsteps walking on the streets. He was really unlucky today. His brother left for a long-term mission before he can say goodbye. His mother would only talk to him when he asked her a question. Not to mention once in a while, he would catch his father looking at him. That look gave him the creeps. Whatever he was planning cannot be good.

Suddenly, "Sasuke-kuuuun," without a backward glance, he fled, running for his life. His fan girls had somehow found him. _'Damn, and I though that I lost them too,' _Why wasn't that dobe here to distract them. (Naru had once saw Sasuke and when she saw he was an arrogant Uchiha, she declared herself as his rival.)

Yes, life was not looking good for the young Uchiha.

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The Hokage had just informed the whole village that Uzumaki Naru was gone for good, knowing that that was the only way to stop them from attacking Naru when she came back. She had just been gone for a week yet everything was too quiet.

He sigh when he saw the stack of paperwork. Well, no time for missing his granddaughter figure's presence, there was a lot of work to do.

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_Time skip three years_

"Finally, we're home. I miss my ramen," said a blonde haired girl light heartedly. "Ne, let's go together to Ichiraku's," Hinata and Gaara nodded. The former a little tiredly while the latter glanced at his other companion before giving a less enthusiastic nod.

Over the years, Naru had finally gotten rid of the orange horrendous jumpsuit and replaced with another orange clothing, insisting to Itachi that orange was her favorite color and that nothing he said can make her change her outfit. Her new outfit was a slightly darker shade of orange than her previous one. Her top was sleeveless and is the color black at the upper part and orange at the lower part. Her pants were consisting of the same color like her clothes though the black took most of the space, a fact that made Naru hesitate in buying it.

Hinata wore a dark blue shirt that showed her figure. It was plain but she fell in love with it at first sight. Since Naru and Itachi-nii approved, she quickly decided to buy it. She wore the standard shinobi pants with two kunai holsters on each side. On her shoulder was a summon tattoo for badgers, which was quite useful for scouting information. In one of her pocket, was a scroll that kept all medical supplies for any emergency. Over the years, she had developed an interest for herbs.

Though Hinata still hated chinese tea…

Itachi was still the same. He had just grown slightly and had cut a few inches of his hair, leaving it at shoulder length. He was wearing the standard shinobi gear. His ANBU mask still hung around his jonin jacket waiting to be pulled out. He also wore black fingerless gloves to protect his hands from winter.

Gaara was…Gaara. Same outfit. Same hair. Same large gourd. Same tanuki-rings around his eyes. But if you'd look closely, under that expressionless face of his, his eyes held happiness. Happiness that he finally found people who accepted him for who he was, and for that he was grateful. He was getting tired to of the assassination attempts on him. Shukaku hadn't been yelling for blood for a while and he had finally been able to sleep peacefully…that is until Naru had a nightmare screaming that she was banned from eating anymore ramen.

Her horrified scream had waked Hinata, himself and Itachi up. Needless to say, they weren't thrilled. Especially Itachi, who had went to a nearby village that day but couldn't find any Pocky and was in a foul mood.

Gaara was a late addition to their training group and had only joined with them on their last training year. He could still remember how delighted he was when they accepted him with open arms.

Flashback

He knew that he was a demon. After all, he could hear what the villagers were whispering. They didn't held back when it came to expressing what they feel about him. He knew that his brother and his sister are afraid of him. They would sometimes watch him from the corner of their eye. When he caught them, they would quickly turn away.

Alone. That word was what caused him so much pain. He would rather commit suicide than feel emotional pain because it hurt so much more. When he tried hurting himself, a wave of sand would stop him. Did he really have no say in his life? He was mentally tired but he was afraid that if he went to sleep, he would attack the villagers. He could still hear the voice inside him saying, **"Why do you even protect the villagers, they hadn't help you or anything. Just destroy them,"**

Yes, such was the life of Sabaku No Gaara. Until that faithful day…

"Oof, itai," a girl bumped into him and landed on the floor. Surprisingly, the sand didn't wave its protective barrier around him. Curious, he studied the girl. She had short midnight blue hair and her front bangs were portrayed at the side of her delicate face. He gasped as he looked at her eyes. Without thinking, he asked, "Ano, are you blind?" The girl stood up and glowered.

"I can see, of course," she said, quite taken aback that the Hyuuga's eyes were thought blind. It was the worst insult a Hyuuga could ever get, as they were all proud of their eyes. Hinata, a bit offended, said, "I'm a Hyuuga, my eyes are suppose to be like this," The boy who had a messy red hair stared at her sheepishly.

Netherless, being the polite person she was, she stuck out her hand and said, "Hi! My names Hinata Hyuuga, what's yours?" the boy, for some odd reason looked shocked. She watched in fascination as he slowly, though reluctantly, held out his hand to grasp hers.

"Sabaku No Gaara," he said at last. For some reason, Shukaku had yet to make any comments to kill this girl. He wondered why but didn't voice out his concerns. Hinata then said shyly, "C-Can I play with you?" He noted the uncertainty in her voice and his heart sank down, maybe she wasn't different from the others and hated him too. When he said yes, she quickly reverted to a playful girl she was as they headed over to the sand box.

He then proceeded in showing off his amazing control of sand. She would laugh gleefully when she saw a particular trick she liked. They were having a lot of fun when Yami, the big bully of the playground came over with his bunch of mean friends. He immediately took a liking to the Hyuuga as she laughed her days away. "Hey little girl, why don't you come play with us instead of that demon," Yami told her. Gaara saddened but it was all up to her to decide.

Surprisingly, she did a really bold move and kicked his shin. Apparently, the words demon still affected her cause when they called Gaara demon, she couldn't help but thought of her loud dense friend. Gaara winced as Yami rolled on the floor as his hands held protectively near his 'brother'. The other boys, fearing for their safety, left without a backward glance.

Hinata grinned at him and said that she would rather play with him than those jerks and he smiled gratefully at her. When the sun was going to set. He told her that he had to go. She said she wanted him to meet her best friend and teacher first so he nervously followed his friend.

Her best friend Naru was simply ecstatic in having a new friend and when she said she was going to eat ramen to celebrate, everybody groaned. Itachi, Hinata's sensei was quiet but cool. He understood when it came to Gaara's tenant, stating softly to Gaara that Naru had one too, making Gaara respect the blonde for being able to still smile after all the hardship she's been through.

"Ne Gaara, do they have ramen in Suna?" Naru asked.

"We just arrived three hours ago to ask about some things so we haven't explore yet," explained Itachi.

"I don't think so," Gaara said. Truth to be told, he didn't know what is ramen, but he was sure that Suna didn't sell it. As they were living in a desert, they could only sell a limited source of food. The closest thing when it came to 'outside' food was barbeque, the rest were spices, and the usual rice, nothing fancy.

Naru looked like someone just stabbed her. So she complained to the nearest person that just so happens to be Hinata. "Hinata, they don't sell ramen here. I'm going to die. Help me! Need…ramen…to…survive…" but before Hinata could answer her, Itachi stroked a nervous point making Naru unconscious for a few hours. Gaara winced as she slumped to the floor.

Itachi smirked in triumphant as he pulled out a Pocky stick out of nowhere. Hinata sigh while Gaara wondered if this was their daily routine. And so, they all went out to eat barbeque, leaving Naru behind. The food was delicious but throughout their lunch, Hinata felt guilty that they left Naru behind. As if he could read minds, Itachi told her that a ramen freak like Naru doesn't deserve lunch.

Still, Itachi bought some dango for Naru on their way home. Whether it was out of pity or guilt, we will never know.

After that, it was time for Gaara to go home. After a sad goodbye, Gaara left without turning back. "Come visit tomorrow!" Naru called to him. He turned back and nodded, smiling for the first time. When he was halfway, he heard Naru complaining about the lack of lunch.

The next day, for some weird reason, his father asked for him in the office. He nervously walked into the Kazekage's room. "The Kazekage had disapproval written on his face. "Gaara," the way his father said his name wasn't the least comforting, he squirmed under the intense gaze his father was giving him. "As you know, you have been troubling the villagers for a while so they demanded that you are to be punished,"

"What is my p-punishment?" asked Gaara, he was scared. He could have sworn the Kazekage grinned, "You are banished," he said.

Gaara slumped into the nearby chair. He had never left the village before and didn't plan to do so but this was a direct order from the Kazekage. "You have to leave today," he said and he dismissed Gaara with a wave of his hand.

When he met up with his friends, they were worried to see him so gloomy. When he explained to then his situation they all showed sympathetic looks. Suddenly, Itachi had an idea. "Maybe you could come with us," saying his thoughts out loud. A surge of hope flowed through Gaara's veins as he heard what Itachi said.

"True, we are after all, not from Suna and we're leaving today…Itachi, can Gaara come along, please?" said Naru. Itachi sigh, even if he said no, he was outvoted seeing Hinata was definitely going to choose traveling with Gaara and add to the fact that he had kind of grown onto the red haired kid. "Fine then, Gaara, pack you stuff and meet us in front of the Suna gates," and with a joyful yippee, Gaara went to pack his stuff.

Flashback End

So, here he was now. After traveling with them, he knew that they were people who he could trust with his life. He never once regret that he followed them, the current problem was if the Hokage was going to accept him as a shinobi.

When they reached, they flashed their I.D. to Kotetsu and Izumo, the chuunin guards. When they questioned about Gaara, Hinata quickly said, "He's with us," they nodded and let them in.

They followed Naru to Ichiraku's but Naru could see Itachi's distressed face. "Itachi, why don't you go and visit your family first," Itachi nodded in gratitude. He missed his mother a lot. Excusing himself, he left.

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Gaara watched in amusement as Naru gobbled down her 18th bowl of ramen. He himself ate 2 bowls whereas Hinata has yet to finish her 1st. "I'm so full," she exclaimed to Teuchi, the owner of the ramen stall, after her twenty something bowl. "Ramen is the best!" she said. Then, she glanced around. "Itachi's not back yet?" she asked. When they both shook their heads, she stood up.

"I'll go look for him so you guys could be alone. Wouldn't want to spoil you date, would you?" she laughed as she managed to dodged a kunai thrown by a rather red-faced Hinata. Gaara wasn't looking that different too. She chuckled. Now where was the Uchiha clan district?

Blood. She could smell the foul metallic scent coming from the Uchiha district. _'Itachi,'_ she thought, and ran. She gasped in horror as hundreds of dead bodies were seen everywhere. These people were slaughtered ruthlessly. She had to find Itachi. She increased her pace as she saw a lone shadow near the wall. "Itachi?" she asked, uncertainly.

She stepped closer and saw his emotionless face. But upon further inspection, she saw him shed a tear. "Who did this?" his voice rasped. She looked around uncertainly, "I don't know," she answered truthfully. Suddenly, they head an ear-piercing scream.

Itachi ran. He knew that voice anywhere. It was his mother's.

Naru followed him, eager to save the survivor. As she reached upon the scene, she cried. Whatever she was hoping for, it certainly wasn't this. "Okaa-san," she heard Itachi say. Naru felt tears on her face when she saw the woman.

She was always nice to her and had given food to her on several occasions. There was once when she had sneaked her into the Uchiha clan district to wash her and had told her a nice bedtime story. The next day, she was found but when they asked her who let her in, she wouldn't admit it. The woman was the closest thing she had of a mother.

"I-Itachi, gomen," the woman cried as she saw her son and she slumped down, never to move again. Uchiha Fugaku cackled madly. "Finally, after all these years, she died," Naru looked at him in disgust, how could he be this evil. Before she could say anything, Itachi expertly took the sword from his father's hand and swiftly cut open his neck.

"Nii-san?" Naru, hidden in the shadows, turn to that voice. It was Sasuke. "Nii-san, why did you kill everyone?" Itachi seemed to be lifeless at the moment, all he could do was look at the sword in his hand that kill his whole clan (except Sasuke). Then after what seemed to be hours, he turned to Sasuke, Mangekyou Sharingan spinning wildly in his eye, and said, "Because I want to test my strength,"

Naru wanted to step out and slap Itachi hard on the face and scold him for lying but she knew she shouldn't. It wasn't her place. She watched in terror as the scenes slowly unfold.

Sasuke trembled in terror. Thoughts like, _'Am I going to die to?'_ ran across his mind. Before he could utter a word, "I played the role of the brother you wanted to test your "mettle", now you will be the one to test mine. Even as you hated me, you've longed to surpass me. That's why I let you live… for my own ends. My foolish little brother… if you want to kill me, then hate me! Curse me! Live your ugly life…and run…run…cling to life…then when you have the same "eyes" as I do, come to me,"

Then, "Tsukoyomi," and Itachi watch with regret as Sasuke slumped to the floor. Wordlessly, he rushed to his mother's side. "I-Itachi, I l-love y-you," she whispered and then she shuddered and left the world. Itachi half consciously walked outside, the taste of blood still lingering around his five senses. The only Uchiha that he truly cared was gone.

He lay on the green grass, mentally exhausted. He felt a presence beside him and looked up. "Naru," he whispered softly. She lay down with him, looking at the stars. "They're so pretty," she exclaimed but out of the corner of his eye, he saw her cry.

"Ne, Itachi. You can't cry right? Never mind then, I-I'll weep for both of us," and he watch as she curled herself up to lessen the pain she felt. As much as he want to cry, he couldn't so he could only watch helplessly as Naru cried for both of them.

Suddenly, it started to rain. He was wet from head to toe but that didn't matter to him. _'Maybe God's crying too,'_ he mused and he felt a sense of peace take over him. Maybe things will work out after all.

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**J:** Another chapter done. You know what's frustrating? It's wanting to write a certain part but unable to until later time.

**Ayumi: **If J would be patient, then it won't be so frustrating.

**J:** Gaki! What did you just say? Are you saying that I'm impatient?

**Ayumi: **Is this a rhetorical question?

**J:** (glares) What do you think?

**Ayumi: **Eep! I'm going to finish my…. homework….

**J:** Anyway, just wondering, is the pace I'm updating fine with you guys? Hope you enjoy this chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

**J:** Thanks for reviewing! So here, I proudly present my next chapter. I know it's late but I have too much things on my hands so…sorry. Finally, I can start progressing. I guess if I don't want to write so many chapters then I just have to write longer chapters.

**Ayumi:** Ne, J? When is Ayumi going to appear? I want to meet Naru-sama and Itachi-chan.

**J:** Gomen Ayumi, you won't appear until later chapters. The reason why you're here is to let the readers understand you personality better so they won't feel awkward when you appear.

**Ayumi: **Oh…Anyway, continue reading cause Ayumi guarantees you won't be disappointed!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did, Ino will not be a fangirl.

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Gaara was disturbed. He and Hinata had just heard about the Uchiha massacre and were both not pleased that Itachi had been blamed for the incident. Furthermore, his beloved brother now holds a grudge against him.

Hinata looked at her sensei sympathetically. He was a nice person. He didn't deserve it. "Ano, Itachi-sensei, what are you going to do now. You can't stay in Konoha," Gaara nodded. If the ANBU found out that **the **Uchiha Itachi was in Konoha, it will only spell chaos.

Surprisingly, Naru was the one who came out the plan. "Itachi," Itachi sigh at the lack of respect, "I have an idea," … … … … ( Sorry, can't tell you guys, it'll spoil the fun but don't worry, you'll find out…eventually ) "…and so you can come back after we pass the chuunin exams,"

Everybody nodded agreeing that they settled for Naru's idea. "You can stay and rest in the guest room in NRH tonight and depart in the morning," said Hinata.

"NRH?" asked Gaara. Itachi raised his eyebrows.

"Naru's Real House," exclaimed Naru happily. Hinata sigh while Itachi looked at her like she had grown two heads. Though Naru had definitely become smarter and is by no means a strategist, she was still loud and childish, though that side rarely appears publicly. Which was why everybody appreciated the little happiness she brought once in a while.

Gaara said, "That's lame,"

Naru look at him, shocked. "Talk about déjà vu. Gaara, that's what Hinata said when I told her about NRH. Gosh, you guys must be somehow synchronized." Hinata turned a shade of red while Gaara suddenly found the ground interesting.

Itachi chuckled. "Fine, we'll spend the night in NRH. Let's go," they left with Naru leading the way.

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Sasuke felt weird. He didn't know if this weird feeling leans more to the good side or the bad side. It seemed like some kind of magnetic force was pulling him to a certain direction.

Curious, he followed. After letting his feet do the walking, he looked up and found himself in front of a small, dirty rundown apartment. He wondered if this was another one of those tricks that his fangirls played on him.

His body unconsciously shuddered. Maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea after all. He turned back to the direction he came from, not knowing that his brother was currently inside said apartment.

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The next day

It was 7 in the morning. Uzumaki Naru tore herself away from her bed. Swaying a little, she grunted as she fell down. She was by no means a morning person. The only reason why she woke up was because Itachi was leaving and she wanted to give him proper goodbyes.

And the fact that Gaara's sand that had shaped like a small fist was barely inches away from her face was not helping too. "Gaara, you're not suppose to use your power over something so trivial like waking me up," she said groggily.

Gaara was dresses and ready. He slept last night of course but he wasn't used to being asleep for more than 7 hours so he decided to wake up Naru, seeing she won't do it herself. "Itachi will be leaving in 10 minutes," he said.

"Crap," Naru said. She rushed into the bathroom to change and after a few minutes, came out fully dressed. Grabbing Gaara's arm, she dragged him out of the apartment and rushed over to Konoha's main gate.

Itachi was tapping his feet impatiently while Hinata was next to him glancing anxiously at any sign of her best friend. Finally, his patient snapped. He had been waiting since 6 in the morning and there had yet to be a sign that Naru was coming. Gaara had left 15 minutes ago to look for Naru but Uchiha's were not the patient type. At least, this Uchiha wasn't.

Hinata looked shyly at Itachi. He was under henge so the village wouldn't notice him. She clasped her hand around his wrist as he started to leave. Frowning, he looked at her. "Itachi-sensei, give her 1 more minute. Naru doesn't break her promises. She would definitely come," for the sake of her life she had better come, or else Hinata would make sure that she would be anywhere but near her ramen.

Itachi fix her an annoyed look. Finally, he answered, "Fine,"

Hinata sighed in relief. Suddenly, she saw a flash of yellow and there was the person she was waiting for, along with a slightly wearied Gaara. Hinata lightly tapped her hand on Naru's head. Naru grinned sheepishly. "What? I made it, right?" she said.

"Barely," said Itachi.

When Naru didn't retort, everybody looked at her in surprise. Looking at their incredulous looks, she said, "What? Can't I be nice once in a while?" she said, tilting her head a little. Naru sweat dropped when Hinata muttered a "Kai,"

"Itachi-sensei, for you," said Gaara as he handed him a book titled 'Junko Takeuchi'. "I wrote it myself," he explained. Itachi said his thanks. He for one certainly didn't expect gifts.

Hinata passed him a scroll. "It's sealed with different kinds of medicine. Convincing them will be hard and maybe you have to rough them a little to make them get your point so…Well, I labeled them. I hope you use them well," she said. Itachi chuckled a little. "Thanks, Hinata,"

"My turn," yelled out Naru. She passed him one large scroll and a large bag pack. "The large scroll contains different jutsus so you won't slack off in training," before Itachi could argue, she said, "And the bag pack contains pocky that will last a month. Longer, if you eat them sparingly," Itachi's eyes softened.

"Itachi, if you can't complete what I ask you to do, then don't. We're not pushing you. You can always come home," she said softly. Hinata and Gaara nodded.

"Ok, but for now, I want to see what I can do," and he left after saying hid goodbyes.

Gaara turned his head away from the direction Itachi took off. "What are we going to do now Naru?" Hinata looked at Naru expectantly. "Join the academy and pass our chuunin exams of course. Then he'll be back," the last was muttered softly but they picked it up. Grinning, Naru said, "Let's go meet Hokage-jiji now," and she led the way, chatting with her friends and ignoring the dirty hateful looks thrown at her.  

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Sarutobi's face fell as he saw that the paperwork had once again grown a little. Suddenly, he heard a ruckus outside. He caught some words like 'Hokage-sama' and 'busy' and 'no time to meet someone like you'. After that, all was silent when a voice screamed out, "Hokage-jiji,"

He fell down his chair at the loud noise. "Send her in," he croaked back. In his mind, he could imagine Naru flashing a triumphant grin at his secretary. Soon enough, Naru came in to his office along with Hyuuga Hinata ( technically, she's not a Hyuuga cause she got kicked out of the clan ) and a red haired boy that seemed to have insomnia. 

"Ji-ji, this is Gaara, the youngest son of the Kazekage," she introduced. _'So that's where the Shukaku jinchuuriki had been all along,'_ he mused. Gaara nodded.

"Naru, how's your training and where's Itachi?" the Hokage asked. Naru shifted nervously. "Erm, he died?" she answered hesitantly.

"Naru, be more serious," he said. Immediately, her expression turned serious. "Hokage-sama," he winced at the formality, "Itachi left after the massacre, I do not know where he is," Hinata nodded. It was a white lie. True, they didn't know where he would head out first but they knew what he was doing. Hinata focused her attention back on the Hokage.

"I see," and the Hokage slumped down a little in defeat.

"Anyways, we're here for a reason," the Hokage raised his eyebrow, "I'll be frank here, we want to join the academy," the Hokage nodded, he had expected that.

"I will sign you up in Umino Iruka's class, it starts in 10 minutes," Naru winced a little, remembering how she woke up this morning. As they headed out the door, the Hokage called at them, "How strong are you?"

Hinata and Gaara walked out while Naru stopped to reply, "I don't know," she replied honestly, and she left, heading to the direction of the academy. Sarutobi winced a little at the change shown in Naru's personality. Well, if they didn't know, he'll just have to figure it out.

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Hinata waited with her friends outside the door. They were waiting to be called in and introduced by their teacher. As they heard their names being called out, Gaara opened the door just in time for them to hear Naru saying something. "Keep a low profile," They nodded, showing that they understood.

"Class, this is Uzumaki Naru, Hyuu-," Hinata couldn't help but hissed a little. "I mean Hinata, and Gaara," he said, pointing at them respectively.

"Iruka-sensei, it's rude to point," said Gaara. Iruka shivered a little at the coldness in Gaara's voice. True, Gaara did warm up to his friends but that didn't mean that he was nice to everybody.

"Take a seat, today we'll be talking about chakra control,' he said. Some of the kids groan while some of them whispered in each other's ear about the new students. Hinata shyly sat between Naru and a boy who had a large trench coat.

"Yo, I'm Kiba and this is Akamaru," he introduced himself. Akamaru barked. Hinata bowed a little. "I'm Naru, and this is Hinata and Gaara" said Naru, grinning. A friend a day keeps the sadness away. Gaara nodded and turned his attention back to the teacher.

"Ano, don't mind him. He just likes getting full marks in everything," said Hinata, noting the slight confusion Kiba had for Gaara. Gaara sighed in annoyance.

"Is that really what you guys think of me? A bookworm? A nerd? A teacher's pet? A perfectionist?" he asked. Hinata and Naru nodded, than burst out loud laughing when they saw his annoyed look.

"Uzumaki Naru! Hyuu-," Glare, "I mean Hinata! Stop fooling around. Detention after class," Naru sighed, she couldn't wait until the end of the year. Then, she could pass the damn exam and be a gennin. Just a step closer towards her current goal.

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Hinata looked at Naru. They were currently walking back to Naru's house. Detention was exhausting. They had to clean the whole school. When Iruka wasn't looking, Naru and Hinata had sent out some kage bunshin to cut some time. "Gaara, let's go," she called, when they were in front of the apartment. They waited in silence. Soon enough, Gaara came out with his large gourd strap at the back of him.

"Where to this time?" he asked.

 "Ramen," said Naru.

"No way, how about dango?" said Hinata.

"Hinata, Naru. It's my turn today," said Gaara.

Hinata hung her head a little in defeat. Naru pouted. "Oh Gaara-sama, please let this humble peasant select a worthy food for your taste," she said.

"Naru, you'll only choose ramen. Today, we're eating barbeque," said Gaara. Hinata's face lit up while Naru…erm well, she was fine with that.

They walked in the barbeque shop and saw Kiba with other kids that were in their class. "Hi," said Hinata.

"Oh, hi," said Kiba. "This is Shikamaru," he said pointing to a pineapple haired guy that had a look that just screamed 'I'm lazy', "Chouji," pointing to a boy that was…plump and was eating a bag of chips, "and Shino," pointing to a creepy looking kid that wore a really high collar which labeled him as 'mysterious'. "I'm Naru. This is Hinata and Gaara," she said.

Naru then sat down with both of her friends, ordering a plate of dango. They chatted about random things with their new made friends. Things were going quite well when Chouji asked, "So, what does your parents do?" The three of them of them flinched.

"I don't know them (white lie, cause she only knows them by name)," said Naru

"I wish I didn't know them," said Gaara.

"Got kicked out the house," said Hinata.

Silence.

"Sorry," said Chouji, looking guilty. They shook their heads, "Never mind," and the awkward atmosphere was dispersed when Naru loudly exclaimed that the barbeque here isn't so bad and that ramen was still better.

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Shikamaru's Point Of View

They were nice people. But that were some thing that he knew that they were hiding. He was curious about them. He could sense that it wasn't wise to be their enemies.

Hinata held a graceful poise that just screamed royalty, though he doubt she knows that herself. Sure, she was shy and all but she's ok. He could see that she was extremely loyal to both her friends. There was once at a point when he mentioned last year's Rookie Of The Year was a Hyuuga, he saw her wince but when he told her it was Hyuuga Neji, she gave a big smile but it was gone as soon as it appeared.

Gaara leaned to a more quiet side. He could have an intelligent conversation with him and he bet that Gaara would be a formidable opponent in shougi. Gaara was most likely the advisor of the group. He gave out a cool and compose aura that made Shino want to talk to him, making everybody around gaped when they saw how much Shino talked around the red head.

Naru was a wildcard. They had so far throw more questions to her than the other two since she seemed more outgoing but it was like they knew more about Hinata and Gaara than her. When he first saw her, he though that she was just one of those brash people like Kiba but she proved him wrong when he caught her looking at Shino's kikaichu. When she saw him looking at her, she grinned at him, proving the old saying, 'Don't judge a book by its cover'.

Kiba's Point Of View

These kids are ok. At least they're not like that stuck up Uchiha Sasuke. They look weak though, except for Gaara. But for some strange reason, Akamaru wants me to be cautious around all of them. Nah, he's probably over thinking the situation. After all, Akamaru and me are strong, we'll beat them so don't be such a coward, Akamaru.

With that said, he went back to his lunch. But somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew that they weren't to be taken lightly.

**_Shino's Point Of View_**

His kikaichu were buzzing around restlessly. He wanted more information on the mysterious new kids so he sent out the smallest kikaichu he could spare. He watched as his kikaichu scrambled over to Hinata to test her chakra capacity. It was about high chuunin. He narrowed his eyes. No academy student could have a chakra reserve that high.

It then proceeded to Gaara. He had a little more chakra than Hinata. The kikaichu quickly went away just in time before Gaara turned over his head. Seeing that there was no one, he answered the question Kiba threw to him.

Lastly, it made it's way towards Naru. Almost immediately, she noticed it and grin, letting it crawl on her finger. It stood still for a few seconds until it suddenly jerked and quickly made it's way back to him. The problem was Naru's chakra. It was too unstable. He narrowed his eyes at her, trying to detect any hidden emotion he could somehow find. Seeing that she gave nothing, he sighed.

Only time could tell him about them, because one thing's for sure, powerful beings can't stay quiet for long.

Chouji's Point Of View

Oh. My. God. I screwed up big time. Why did I open my mouth to ask about their parents? I am the fool among fools. For flying fish's sake, get a hold of yourself. You are Akimichi Chouji, the heir of the Akimichi clan, you have to pull yourself together. One question won't change your life. At least I think so…

Hmm, Naru seems to have forgiven me. That girl's so nice and understanding. Well, anyone who enjoys food like me is definitely a friend of mine. Add to the fact that none of them have made fun of my size…

I wonder what clan Hinata comes from. (Hinata has a genjutsu cast over her eyes, sorry for not mentioning earlier) Anyways, that doesn't matter. Well, she seemed to have forgiven me too so she can't be bad. At least this proves that she's a forgiving person, though I wonder what she meant when she said kicked out of the house?

…Gaara is definitely scary. And to think that I thought that Shino was scary. He doesn't seem so forgiving like Hinata and Naru. Still, I saw a flicker of concern he showed to Naru and Hinata when I asked them the question. So that means he's loyal to his friends. After all, who am I to judge someone after only a day of meeting him or her?

Only time can tell.

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Naru stood up, catching Hinata and Gaara's eye. Hinata glanced at the clock that hung near the counter. She nodded. It was time for their daily routine. Naru excused herself from her friends while she went to the counter.

"May I have the bill for the table over there?" she asked politely. The cashier nodded and passed her a receipt. She paid him twice the amount. Which was a lot. "Tip," she said when he look at her, bewildered. He thanked her graciously.

She smiled. Not every shop would let her eat in peace and she was grateful that this one did. She walked briskly over to her table. "Now if you would please excuse us, we have certain things to do," she said, smiling to her new friends. "Don't worry, I paid already," she said. They thanked her for the meal and Hinata and Gaara got up and followed her out.

"Time for some training, we've been slacking off," she muttered under her breath. So, they headed to the Forest Of Death. "I miss this place," Hinata spoke up. Yeah, the last memories she had here was she battling giant man eating plants and large poisonous snakes. She grinned, this would be their training spot.

Gaara felt left out as Hinata and Naru traded old stories that happened in the Forest Of Death, but he listened intently and laughed occasionally at the stupidity of Naru when she was young. After a while, they started meditating. It wasn't wise to do heavy exercise after eating. And so, they sat in silence. Occasionally blocking the strikes of snakes that were out for lunch.

All was going well and they were about to finish the exercise when…

Some light snoring was heard from Naru. Hinata slapped her forehead in annoyance. In had been barely three hours and the impatient Naru had just fell asleep. Again.. "Let her sleep," said Gaara. Hinata nodded.

Shifting a little, she stood up. "Want to spare?" she asked.

"Ok," he nodded. He took up a stance that he was familiar with. "Souseki style?" she arched an eyebrow.

"I have to improve it before sensei comes back," he explained. She nodded in understanding. She did a hand seal. "Kirikagure no jutsu," now no one can spy on them. "First blood?" he asked, smiling a little.

She glared at him and he chuckled. "No way, you have higher defense," she argued.

"Fine, only taijutsu," he said.

Then, they took off. He quickly blocked her attempt to hit his arm. It was just a distraction.  She ended up closing some of his tenkutsu points. He winced. "How does it feel?" she asked, laughing.

"Hurts like hell," he answered.

He gathered chakra at his palm and waited for his opportunity. He wasn't disappointed. "You have an opening," he told her, and hit her stomach. She toppled, coughing blood in the process. She did a hand seal. "Kai," she said. He could feel the weigh seals that she released. Before he could say 'not fair', she launched at him and closed all his tenkutsu points.

He staggered and dropped down to his knee. Her strikes were too fast for his defense to react. Looking at his pained expression, she quickly hit the necessary points to reopen his tenkutsu. "Looks like you have been slacking off," she said, grinning a little.

"It isn't fair to release your weigh seals, at least give some indication…" he trailed off. She grinned. "Since when were you so fast?" he asked.

"I let out my repressed chakra," she said.

"What do you think about Shino, Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru?" he said.

"Kiba and Chouji are ok but Shino and Shikamaru aren't hard to fool, we have to be careful in not releasing too much info on them," she replied.

"She got that right, I saw his kikaichu gathering info on us," said Naru.

They turned to her. "Finally woke up, eh?" said Gaara. Naru grinned in reply.

"Still, there are more things to worry about. Make sure you compliment each other's styles so that we could be paired into a team. Hinata, if you have time, try to dig up info on the jonins, Gaara you have to keep your eyes on the spies that want info on us. Beware of the council," she said. They nodded.

"Well, time to go back home," said Hinata. They picked up their stuff and went back home. "Gaara, it's your turn to cook," Gaara winced. He hated cooking. Naru laughed. Life was good when you have good friends.

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**J:** I hope your satisfied, it was difficult to write, especially the sparring scene. Let me explain a little. **_Weigh seals are…_**

****

**Ayumi:** **_Seals that changes their weight based on the user's chakra. The more chakra you have, the heavier it weighs. _**

**J:** Ayumi…glares

**Ayumi:** Hai! Ayumi promise that she won't do it again.

**J:** Once again, thanks for the support and sorry for the late update.


	7. Chapter 7

**J:** I am really disappointed and am now debating with myself whether I should continue this story because it seems that the story is getting less response from the readers. Is it the fact that you guys lost your interest in my story? The only thing that is stopping me from removing it is

**turquoise-kitsune**

**Lady Shadow Of Time**

**hejen88**

**ksune**

**ying9**

Sabaku no -X-Temari-X-

_(who is obsessed with grammar)_

because I know you guys are still sticking with me! Thanks a lot for the support. I really appreciate it. Anyways, I was wondering if I should include Sasuke       bashing. I personally want to rip his heart out for betraying Naruto but

Since this is my first fic, I would like to be nice and offer a choice to my readers. You guys get to choose.What can I say, I have plans for both Sasuke bashing and no Sasuke bashing. Am I a genius or what? (inserts laughing)If you don't know what to choose, leave it to me, I'll decide! Though you probably know what I'm going to do…

One more thing, once this fic reaches the tenth chapter, I'll be letting you guys decide if you want me to continue the story.

I know that a lot of people don't really like to hear the author ramble but this is necessary. Fine, I admit I'm guilty for scolding people when I do the same like them too…

**Ayumi:** J! Ayumi doesn't like that guy with the duck butt hair.

Sigh…Anyways…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did, Naruto's favorite food will probably be UDON! (kake udon is my fave)

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Hinata sat in the middle of her Naru and Gaara, silently observing the facial expressions of her classmates. It had been 6 months since they attended their first day in the academy and things were going according to plan.

Gaara was now acting as the book smart kid with a highly efficient passion for genjutsu. Naru was the loudmouth that failed most of the test but was a something close to a taijutsu specialist, seeing that her stamina wasn't quite normal. Herself was the shy kid that was only good in ninjutsu. The academy teachers still hadn't figured out that she was the ex-Hyuuga heiress.

_'Silly fools,'_ she mentally snorted.

Today was the day where they took their gennin test. All they had to do was do a bunshin, kawarimi and henge. She herself thinks that it was too easy. Her thoughts were snapped out of when Gaara shook her. "Hinata, it's your turn,"

"Kick their asses," added Naru.

"You can't kick their ass, we're not doing taijutsu," Gaara patiently told her. Hinata giggled. "Good luck," he looked at Hinata. She felt her heart flutter a little. _'Wait, flutter?'_ she thought.

She slapped herself hard at that thought.

Silence.

Then, the students started whispering. Naru gazed at her in concern, "Hinata?" Hinata blushed when she found out she slapped herself in front of the class. _'Eep,'_

She thought. She quickly dashed into the exam room. She could practically feel Naru and Gaara gaze worriedly at her. Her friends were a little over protective when it came to her.

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She felt Mizuki's eyes set on her and she repressed the urge to shudder. She was sensitive when it came to other people's emotions. She had picked the habit of feeling one's emotion before confronting them from Naru and Gaara. Though both of them didn't show it so much, they were both emotional people, due to the fact of their broken childhood.

She could feel the evil intentions of Mizuki, Iruka-sensei's assistant, rolling all over him. There was no doubt in his eyes that he thinks that Naru is a demon and that he wanted them to fail. Mentally, she smirked a little.

She did the hand seals for bunshin, kawarimi and henge respectively. Her score was average. She didn't want to show them what she was capable of now, would she? She 'shyly' received her hita-ite and a small "Congratulations," from Iruka and walked out the door, trying to suppressed the urge to smirk at Mizuki's who was now looking quite disappointed.

She walked towards her two friends and they grinned when they saw her hita-ite hung loosely around her neck. They were playing shougi. And surprisingly, Naru was having the upper hand, much to Gaara's annoyance. Shikamaru, for once, look interested at their game and would once in a while offer some comments like, "Didn't see that coming," or "You should have put that one there,"

After some random guys turn, Gaara was called out. "Shikamaru, help replace me for a while and don't you dare lose," he said in a monotone voice. Shikamaru nodded his head with a hint of excitement. Gaara wanted Hinata to help him but she didn't like shougi. So…Shikamaru it is.

He walked in the door just in time to hear Naru declare, "You're going down, pineapple head," followed by a "Troublesome," from Shikamaru. He chuckled lightly and walked in the room.

_A few minutes later_

He walked out the room, succeeding to be the person who took the shortest amount of time to finish the gennin exams. He then shared a look with Hinata, conforming her suspicion about Mizuki. Naru caught their look and they send her a mental alert. _Stay on your guard._

Gaara was pleased that he had yet to lose, in fact, he and Naru were now standing on even ground. Naru had suspect that he leaked out a bit of his capabilities to the teacher just because he wanted to win against her in shougi. They had a little competition in shougi. If Naru managed to defeat him three times, he would have to buy her a year's worth of ramen.

He'd die before he let her win.

Currently, she had beaten him once. He knew perfectly well that the only reason why he usually wins is because that Naru could easily get distracted. Something he usually took advantage of.

The game was reaching its climax and was in the showdown when, "Uzumaki Naru," was called out. He sighed. Just when he was about to enjoy the excitement in the game, the gennin exams burst his bubble. "I'll be back to make sure you lose," Naru said and left.

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Naru fidget slightly under Mizuki's glare, trying to act scared. Deep down, she knew that Kyuubi-nii was a thousand times worse than this. Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-baka were currently fighting over whether they should pass Naru.

She passed all the tests but Mizuki-baka said that she probably cheated and that she shouldn't pass. Obviously, Iruka-sensei sided with her since he was a fair person. Finally, she impatiently asked, "Am I passing or not?"

Before Mizuki could protest, Iruka handed Naru's hita-ite to her. Naru grinned and took off before she could hear those uncles squabble again. She tied her hita-ite on her forehead. Looking at her game, she resumed her position. Frowning, she said, "Don't you guys know that hita-ite means forehead protector?" They glanced at her and nodded.

She was the only one that had her hita-ite hung on her forehead. Shaking her head in defeat, she said, "Screw fashion,"

A few minutes later, Iruka walked out along with a furious Mizuki. "Tomorrow, we will be announcing your teams and jonin sensei. Please be here before 8 in the morning. Once again, congratulations in passing," and he was going to leave when suddenly…

"GAARA!!" Naru screamed, glaring at the red head.

Hinata chuckled, understanding immediately why Naru reacted like that. Iruka said, "Naru, would you like to share anything with your classmates," obviously irritated at her. She gave a sheepish grin and shook her head. Then, everybody proceeded in walking out of the academy.

Naru glared at Gaara. "That wasn't fair," she said.

"Life isn't fair, more so for shinobis like us," he replied cheekily.

Naru's eyes soften, knowing that he was talking about their childhood. "But that didn't mean you could cast a genjutsu at the shougi board. What's more, it was a demonic illusion," she growled, looking quite like a fox, her eyes showing her obvious displeasure.

Gaara answered, "There's no way I'm paying for your ramen for a year, no sane people would do that,"

Hinata smiled a little at her friend's antics. "Come on, we'll celebrate our graduation with dinner at Ichiraku's," Naru immediately brightened up.

"On you?" she asked suspiciously. Hinata nodded while Gaara sighed. Together they headed to Ichiraku's while discussing whom they thought was going to be their jonin sensei. Naru almost falling on the stool when Gaara suggested that it was probably no one. "No one can resist our charms," she said, giving a wink.

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The next morning

Naru, along with Hinata and Gaara arrived just on time. They took a seat and waited patiently for their names to be announced. At least, that was what Hinata and Gaara did while Naru went to chat with her friends.

Out of the corner of his eye, Gaara saw the Uchiha brat eyeing them. He narrowed his eyes. Thing weren't looking good for them. He could see that Sasuke wanted to walk over to Naru. Just as he stood up, Iruka walked in, Mizuki nowhere in sight. Gaara entertained himself thinking of the misfortune Mizuki was in. When Iruka started ranting about the duty of being a shinobi, Gaara looked around and saw that he was the only one paying attention, much to Iruka's dismay.

Finally, Iruka started calling out the names of the teams. Gaara tensed, this was the time when they finally find out if their 6-month act was working. It was the time to see their result.

"Team 7, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Yakushi Kabuto. Your jonin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

"Team 8, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba and Sai. Your jonin sensei will be Yuuhi Kurenai."

"Team 10, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. Your sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma."

"Team 12, Uzumaki Naru, Hinata and Sabaku no Gaara. Your jonin sensei will be Mitarashi Anko."

"… …" Then, the class roared with noise, some arguing about their team mates. Sakura was openly bragging that she got to be with her 'Sasuke-kun'. Naru grinned at her best friends. "Looks like it paid off," she said.

Sasuke was trying hard not to repeatedly bang his head on the table. He had the no1 fan girl and a geek he didn't know as a teammate. He envied 'the trio' (our heroes pet names gave by their class since they were always together) who were once again together. Furthermore, he's never heard of a Hatake Kakashi. He was probably just some guy who was privileged to be the teacher of the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan.

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Hinata tapped her foot rhythmically while humming a song. They were waiting for their teacher in the classroom. Besides team 7, they were the only team that hasn't left the classroom. Suddenly, the Uchiha walked over. Before he could say anything, a purple head peeked into the classroom.

"Mitarashi Anko here to pick up team 12, meet me at the dango shop," she said. Mitarashi Anko was an…interesting figure. She wore a fishnet shirt underneath her trench coat and had hazel eyes. Naru, Hinata and Gaara walked out and headed to the nearest dango shop. Their teacher was already there, eating a plate of dango. "Oya-ji, a plate of dango for my team please," she said to the boss of the store.

"Coming right up," was the reply and soon enough, the dango was on the table.

"First off, I'm Mitarashi Anko. Introduce yourself," she said, eyeing at the gennins.

"My name is Uzumaki Naru. I like ramen, my friends, nii-san, and my other teacher. I dislike arrogant people. My dream for the future is a secret," said Naru.

"I'm Hinata. I like dango," at this, Anko grinned, "medical books and herbs, Naru, Gaara and Nii-san. I dislike a certain orange book that Kakashi-nii carries around and the Hyuuga clan. My dreams for the future is to help my friends achieve their dreams," said Hinata.

"You're not bad, squirt," commented Anko.

"Gaara. Likes are none of your concern. Dislikes, you don't need to know. Dreams, don't have one," he said.

"Well that was informative," said Naru sarcastically.

_'I have a hyperactive kid, a shy one and an emo. This ought to be interesting,'_ thought Anko.

"Ok kiddies, come to the Forest Of Death at 7 sharp, we will have our real gennin test there," she said, waiting of their frightened looks. Contrary to the fact, they were grinning ear to ear.

"Forest Of Death? Hear that, Hinata, Gaara, its our turn to shine," Naru said, smiling broadly.

"This is so ironic," said Hinata. Gaara nodded.

Anko was confused. She didn't expect their reaction to be like this. Well then, all she could do now was look forward to tomorrow's test and make sure they fail. She grinned, yes, tomorrow will decide a lot of things.

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**J:** I know I'm late, reason: Geography project, story telling competition, public speech, oral test, and History project…yeah, a busy week.

Warning: Please decide if you want me to continue this story cause I have a lot of request from my friends to do other fics. So if this _idea_ got shot down, I'm going to do a GA fic and a HP fic.


	8. Chapter 8

**J:** Thanks for all your support. My story will be long so once I'm done through a certain period of time, I'm stopping this story and doing a sequel.

**Ayumi:** Hihi! This is Ayumi's last time meeting everybody cause she has to prepare. Gomen, ne, Ayumi won't be appearing in this chapter or the next but don't worry, I will appear eventually.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto but I do own Ayumi.

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Mizuki grinned, thinking, _'I can steal the forbidden scroll even without the help of the demon and her friends,'. _He tucked the huge scroll in tighter to his arm and sped off to the borders of the Fire Country. He was confident that nobody would catch up. After all, he was half a day ahead.

He heard trees rustling nearby but dismissed it as an animal searching for food. It was a part mistake. It was indeed an animal. A summoned animal. A huge fox to be exact, and it came out clawing at him. Mizuki was resting at the tree. Needless to say, he had no time to react as he was sitting down acting like an idiot that had no worries.

He couldn't stand up and run away. That would take about 8 seconds. If he were to throw a kunai at it…well, he lost all courage to do that when he saw its sharp fangs ferociously lunging at him. Don't worry, there's always a back up plan. Too bad he wasn't smart, before he could even launch a plan, he was mercilessly torn to pieces. The big fox grinning as he tasted the traitor's flesh in his mouth.

After eating his lunch, he grabbed the scroll his master wanted and _poof_, return beck to his world and waited for his master to call him.

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Naru grinned as she felt a certain tingling feeling on her skin. Doing the necessary seals for Kuchiyose no Jutsu, she summoned Heki. Heki was a large fox with orange fur and has proven his loyalty to Naru countless times. He was Naru's favorite and was often sent to do odd jobs.

"Naru-sama, here is the scroll you ask me to return," said Heki as he passed the scroll to Naru. Naru took the scroll from him and observed it carefully, making sure it wasn't a fake. After nodding her approval, she asked, "What about the traitor?"

At this, Heki grinned, showing his fangs that were red with Mizuki's blood. "Eliminated," he replied. Naru grinned, Hinata cringed and Gaara sigh.

Naru was happy, usually she would show mercy to people but when it came to traitors…lets just say the result ain't pretty.

She walked over to the fridge and got out a large piece of meat. "For your family, Heki, and you're dismissed," she said. Heki bowed a little to show his gratitude and left.

"Now that's over, let's study," Naru said and she opened the forbidden scroll and together they started to read its contents. The Hokage can wait. For now, they will learn as many things as they can and passed it to him tomorrow.

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It was 6.30 in the morning and they had just passed the forbidden scroll to the Hokage. The Hokage was bewildered at first and after snapping back to reality, had thanked them and given them each a C-rank pay.

They were currently heading to the Forest Of Death. Gaara was leading. He led them to the entrance and waited for their sensei's arrival. She appeared 10 minutes later on time and once again, they thanked God that their teacher wasn't someone like Hatake Kakashi who had no manners when it came to time.

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Somewhere in someplace, Hatake Kakashi sneezed. Looking at his clock, he saw he was 3 hours late for the gennin exam. Shrugging, he reasoned to himself that if they could wait for 3 hours, surely they wouldn't mind one more. With that in mind, he fell back to sleep.

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Gaara cringed as Mitarashi Anko made her loud entrance. "The sexy and still single Mitarashi Anko is here," she said, grinning sadistically.

"If you're that sexy, then why are you single?" snapped Gaara, who was annoyed. Anko wanted to punch him there and then but managed to resist the temptation.

"Anyways, before a certain someone interrupted me, today's test won't be easy because my standard is higher than the usual jonin. There will be 3 tests, this is normal (don't believe her, she's lying, she's just trying to fail them, they're only suppose to have 1 test, how do I know? I'm the author!), the first test is…

**1st test: Treasure hunting in the Forest Of Death**

Explain: They are to find a single lock of hair, Anko's hair to be exact, in the time limit of 1 hour. The first one to arrive passes the test.

Normally, any gennin will be screaming, "That's impossible, even a chuunin will find this task hard," but the trio weren't normal gennin, so without complaining, they hopped off in different directions, splitting up to cover more space and after 15 minutes, they met up in their usual spot. "We need a plan," said Hinata.

"Well listen up, we do our best to find that lock of hair. Anyone who found it, give a signal, we'll meet up here. Get all the help you can get, we can't waste time. Whoever finds it first get to decide on dinner and the person who reaches here last has to do all the chores for this week without the help of kage bunshin," instructed Naru. With that said, she quickly did the hand seals for Kuchiyose no Jutsu and summoned a large pack of tracking foxes.

Hinata did the same while Gaara made several third eyes to look for it. "You do know that I will find it first right?" said Hinata. Naru slapped her forehead. She forgot that Hinata had Byakugan and badgers, her summoning, were specialist when it came to finding things. No time to regret on past decisions, they quickly spread out to find the lock of purple hair.

_With Naru_

"Find a lock of purple hair and bring it to me as fast as you can," she instructed and her summons took off, eager to please their master. Naru herself sent out as many kage bunshins as she can, and soon enough the area were crowded with her solid clones. She wanted to eat ramen tonight, there's no way she's going to eat dango or barbeque. She would make sure of it.

With Hinata

She was doing her best, sparing her chakra at her doujutsu instead of her bunshins. She is certainly going to win this, she was confident in it. Somewhere at the back of her mind, something was nagging at her, telling her to think this test through. She ignored the voice but knew that it was going to resurface again.

With Gaara

_'This would take forever,' _he thought. There was no way three people can look for a thing as small as a lock of hair in an area this big. Something was not in place and he just couldn't shrug off the feeling that there was a double meaning to the test. He was going to think deeper about it when a fox came in front of him.

"Gaara-sama, Naru-sama wants you to head back to the usual spot," with that being said, in poof back to it's world. _'Has she found it' _ he thought as he headed to the direction of the place he first came from.

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Naru sat under the tree, occasionally focusing her chakra on her fingers to manipulate the wind, loving the feeling that the wind was giving to her. She was patiently waiting for her friends and soon enough, Gaara and Hinata together. Seeing Naru's raised eyebrow, they explained, "We met up on our way here,"

Shrugging, Naru explained, "Tell me, what are we?"

They looked at her, confused, but netherless, answered, "Shinobi,"

"Yes, we're shinobi. So aren't we supposed to look underneath the underneath? Why don't we just go directly at Anko-sensei and cut a lock of her hair?" she then asked. Realization dawned them and without a word, they rushed off to look for their sensei. It was easy to look for her since she wasn't hiding.

"Given up brats?" she asked. Anko was secretly dancing the victory dance in her mind. There was no way these brats could figure the test out. Wordlessly, there was a yellow flash and she turn to the gennins just in time to see them holding a lock of her hair each. Together, they held it out and gave it to her. All was quiet until, "Guess we passed," and Anko was crying over her loss of hair and their achievement.

"The next test is more challenging, you are to take care of the criminal that has been spying on innocent young ladies in the hot spring…" at this, Hinata and Naru were pissed. "The next text is…

**2nd test: Capture of the hot spring peeping criminal**

Explain: They are to head out to capture the hot spring peeping criminal alive.

At this, Anko rubbed her hands in glee. There was no way they could capture Jiraiya of the sannin. After all, they were just brats.

Naru and Hinata stormed off while Gaara was trembling a little at the killer intent that was radiating off his friends. They definitely could catch this criminal. The only thing that is preventing them from passing this test is if the pervert will make it out alive. Sure enough, they soon heard a perverted giggle coming from the hot springs at the ladies side.

Naru, followed by a pissed off Hinata went to the back of the pervert. The pervert had long, spiky white hair and had a forehead protector with the kanji for oil on it. He wore kabuki clothes and looked downright stupid. He turned to look at the kunoichis and before he could explain or introduce himself, Naru screamed at the top of her voice, "PERVERT,"

Civilians and kunoichis alike came rushing out with numerous weapons and aimed it at the pervert. Hinata threw a chakra-enhanced fist at him while Naru pinned him down to kick his groin. The males that were passing by threw sympathetic looks to the pervert but they didn't dare to help him. Being subjected to a woman's fury is never nice.

Just as Naru was aiming for the killing blow, Gaara intervened. "Naru, get a hold of yourself. Do you want to pass the test or not?" he said. As if in a trance, Naru snapped and said, "Oh, I forgot about that, better take him away to Anko-sensei,"

So, along with Hinata, they escaped with the pervert. Using a kage bunshin along with a kawarimi, they manage to leave without causing a ruckus. Gaara was the one holding the pervert seeing that it wasn't a wise decision to leave him with the two kunoichis. They met up with Anko in the dango shop and threw the pervert at Anko's feet.

Groggily, the pervert said, "I'm Jiraiya the great toad hermit sage. You can't do this to me. The great icha icha series has to continue," and he fainted, Anko was a mixture of happiness and sadness. Happy that the pervert finally got beaten, rather brutally I might add and sad that the gennins once again passed her test.

"Good work brats," she said, though inwardly, she was disappointed. "The third and final test is…

**3rd test: Steal things from jonins**

Explain: They are to each steal something from a jonin teacher respectively. The matches are as follows:

Naru - Kakashi's icha icha series

Hinata - Kurenai's charges Shino / Kiba / Sai

Gaara – Asuma's cigarettes and lighter

With Naru

When she arrived, Kakashi was giving Sasuke a lesson of ninjutsu. After a few seconds, Sasuke's body was buried underground. Ignoring the Uchiha, Naru walked up to Kakashi, "Kakashi-nii, where's your icha icha series?" she said, with innocent eyes.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said slowly. With each word, he hid the orange book behind his back into the pouch. With a speed faster than Gai, Naru snatch the book away from his hands and then, "Shunshin no Jutsu," and with a swirl of winds, she was gone. Along with his precious book. Kakashi did a kage bunshin to replace him while he went after the mischievous blond.

He ran around Konoha swearing that he will wage war against the Uzumaki if he were to find his book injured. Naru just chuckled and told him that a book couldn't be injured. She distracted him with a bunshin henge into the Yondaime Hokage. Kakashi almost fainted in shock. Almost. His mind went blank for a few moments trying to register the fact that his sensei was still alive.

After a while, his mind managed to process that it was just Naru's attempt to slow him down. Taking out a scroll, he bit his thumb and rolled his blood on it, "Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu _(Summoning technique: Earth Release: Tracking Fang Technique)_," and he slammed his palm on the ground. Eight nin dogs appeared and he instructed them to hunt down Naru. He had smeared blood on her jacket just in case a situation like this surfaced. Unlike a certain someone we have grown to hate, he has a backup plan.

Naru arrived to Kakashi's house and quickly barged in (the door wasn't look as Kakashi was confident that no one will dare to steal from a jonin). She walked around trying to figure out where the entire icha icha series were and found them stacked innocently on Kakashi's bed. Naru had a feeling that he read the series every night. She pulled them together and said, "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu _(Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)_," and watched in satisfaction as the entire series burned to a crispy black.

Kakashi arrived just in time to see his series dissolve into dust. He had been too late. His nin dogs had been confused when a large smoke hindered their senses. Thus, explaining why he was too late to save his books. He was just about to hunt Naru when he saw a note sticking on his fridge. It was from Naru. It said:

_Kakashi-nii, _

_If I said that I'm really happy to finally rid you of those perverted books, I would be lying. I mean, you've taken carte of me and Hinata for so long and I had to show you my gratitude. So I have taken the liberty of buying the whole set of your destroyed series AND the new one and would pass it along to you on your next birthday. Think of it as a token of my gratitude so don't die before then! _

_P.S: I felt guilty so you better thank my conscious. Oh, and did I mention that destroying your icha icha series was my gennin test? Anko-sensei's real nice…_

_Sincerely,_

Uzumaki Naru

Kakashi didn't know if he was suppose to laugh or cry but he ended up sighing and his _surrogated sister's _antics. His eyes widened a little as he remembered about the gennin test he was giving. He quickly hurried off to the place where he left his team.

With Hinata

Hinata debated whether she could ask to lend Kiba (she knew him better among those three) or if she should just barge in and steal him. Hinata, being the sweet girl she is, decided to do it the easy way but stopped in her tracks when she saw the word **KIDNAP**.

Sighing, she decided to kidnap Sai instead, firstly, because she was afraid that Shino would find out more than they wanted to let on and second, Kiba was just too loud and would just ruin her plans. Add to the fact that she wasn't close to Sai and wanted to know what kind of person he is.

She came to their training spot and expertly masked her presence, biding for the time to move. Once in a while, Kurenai would catch her position but before she could say anything, Hinata had already went to look up on a different hiding place. When Kurenai left (to hide something. Their teams gennin test was to retrieve that something), Hinata did a kage bunshin and henge into Sai. She looked at her bunshin and nodded with satisfaction. She had given the bunshin and extra dose of chakra so that it wouldn't disperse so easily.

Then, when she was sure that Shino was distracted and Kiba wasn't looking, she did the seals for kawarimi and exchanged herself with Sai. The real Sai was now with her bunshin and her bunshin was now explaining her gennin test to him. Hinata, on the other hand was telling her teammates that she needed to use the restroom. They nodded and she managed to escape, knowing that it will take them a total of 15 minutes before they realized what was going on.

She grinned, the test was a piece of cake. She wondered how her friends were doing?

With Gaara

Gaara was pissed. He thought that Anko was underestimating his abilities to perform individually. Boy, was he wrong. Asuma clung onto his cigarette real tight and once in a while, he would check if he still had it. Gaara was about to pull his hair out in frustration when he found out that his 56th plan didn't work.

He observed his surroundings and saw that they were in a land with lots of ground. '_Perhaps I can use this as my advantage,'_ thought Gaara. He ordered his sand to dig in to the ground to crush the soil inside when he gave the signal.

As if in slow motion, Asuma lift up his cigarette and lighter to light a new cigarette. Gaara quickly issued the signal and crush, the ground below Asuma crumbled down and Gaara leaned in expectantly, hoping that Asuma lost a grip on his cigarette and lighter. The cigarette and lighter were each clinging to his hands, safe from harm, staring innocently at him.

Gaara screamed in frustration. The damn cigarette and lighter just won't come off. He was starting to bang his head on the tree when he suddenly thought of an idea. Grinning a little, he thanked himself for managing to cover his identity before attempting to steal the items that he was suppose to steal. He did a hand seal and lifted all of his weigh seals.

He composed his face onto a little shy composure, the way Hinata usually did, and head of to the direction of Asuma. Before that, he henge into a boy that was around the Hokage's grandson's age. Trying to look like he was mustering courage to talk (when in fact he was inwardly grinning), he said, "Asuma-sensei, I heard from Konohamaru-kun that you're a really strong ninja so I decided to write you as a role model for my project,"

Asuma was flattered that this academy student was asking him to be his model and he quickly filled him in what he liked, disliked, his dreams for the future. He blushed a tomato red when he said that he wanted to marry Kurenai. When he said that he liked cigarettes, Gaara quickly feign interest on the subject.

"Ano, what's a cigarette? Is it a kind of food?" he said, innocently. Asuma shook his head and pulled out a cigarette to show him. Then, he pulled out his lighter and lit it, showing him what it was. "Can I see one that isn't burnt up close?" Gaara asked, careful to don't sound suspicious. Asuma took out a fresh cigarette and showed him. To add his interest, he showed him the lighter too, hoping to hook up someone on cigarettes (talk about evil).

Gaara grinned, he snatched the cigarette and lighter from Asuma's hand and fled, still maintaining his henge-d form. He was, of course, faster than Asuma and made a detour before arriving at the spot he was assigned to meet Anko. He groaned a little when he saw that he was the last one. Naru smiled broadly, "In your face, Gaara, I was first, Hinata came in ten minutes later,"

Sure enough, on the table was pictures of the remains of the icha icha series and sitting next to Naru was an odd looking boy he presumed to be Kurenai's charge. Anko nodded in acknowledgement at them and looked at Gaara, hoping he didn't have the required item. Her face fell when he pulled out the stolen things from Asuma.

From somewhere far away, they distinctively heard, "DAMN ACADEMY BRAT," but shrugged it off as a trick of their ears.

Anko filled her head with the possibilities in what she was going to do now. She could always lie and say that they needed to pass one more test. She was about to announce the test when she saw their eyes. They all had mixed emotion but looking underneath the underneath, she saw eyes quite like her own, so instead, she said, "You guys are interesting, I'll take you on so be ready in the Hokage tower at 7 sharp to take on missions,"

She didn't know what made her say that, but she knew that if she were to get close to them, her life would take a drastic turn. She wanted changes, ones that don't glare, taunt or mock at her. With a wave of her hand, she dismissed Sai and her new gennin team, and walked to the Hokage tower, pondering if she made the right choice.

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The Hokage looked at his fellow jonin expectantly, hoping to deter their current emotions, but as expected, they held an impassive face. "Report," he ordered. One by one, jonin stood up and recounted their test. So far, all the gennin had fail.

He then ordered rookie jonin Yuuhi Kurenai and she started recounting her gennin test. She said that when she came back to her team (after hiding the object), Sai was missing but he appeared halfway through the test. Netherless, her team passed.

Asuma was looking pissed for some reason but he refused to tell everyone. He thought he heard a snicker from Anko but waved it off to hear the report of his son. When the result was positive, he smiled, he looked forward to the new generation of the Ino-Shika-Chou formation and wished a good luck to his son.

It was Hatake Kakashi's turn and everybody braced himself or herself for the usual answer. A handful of jonins toppled to the ground when Kakashi said, "Passed," and the Hokage quickly demanded to know what happened. Turn out that they barely passed and one of the reason was his kage bunshin only had a portion of his chakra and was quickly defeated by Yakushi Kabuto (YAKUSHI KABUTO, NOT SASUKE). Inwardly, Kakashi was adding another line to the Why-I-Hate-Naru list.

It was finally Mitarashi Anko's turn and she began confessing that she had given three test instead of the usual one. "At first, I was downright against the idea of being in charge of a gennin team but somewhere in the middle of the test, I want to get to know them, so they passed," and once again, everybody opened their mouth in shock and the Hokage quickly regained his composure.

The new gennins for this year were finally chosen.

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Somewhere in NRH, the trio were having a feast, congratulating themselves for managing to pass AND not show too much of their true abilities.

Though Hinata and Naru were occasionally laughing at Gaara for being the last, and they started trading in on what happened when on their third test.

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**J:** Finish! Now leave me alone, I'm in a bad mood (that's why it had a crappy ending), my parents are coming to school today. This spells disastrous. Hope you enjoy this chapter and keep supporting me.

Arigatou Gozaimasu!


	9. Chapter 9

**J:** …I'm so proud of myself! Comparing with my first chapter, I've increased quite a number of words. In short, I'm actually improving. Now if I could just apply this skill in my next exam…

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. If I did, I wouldn't be here now would I?

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Naru winced as Tora the fire daimyo's cat (or the-demon-that-just-won't-die, as Naru dubbed), gave her a rather large scratch on her arm, causing it to bleed. "Gaara, you hold _it_, it's time to put your defense to good use," she complained. They had spend at least an hour to find the cat and were now tired and hungry. This was their 6th D-rank mission and they were pissed already.

Anko chuckled as Gaara had already raised a fraction of sand aiming to crush the demo- I mean Tora's heart. It seemed just like yesterday that it had been her instead, as a gennin, catching the cat.

Her sensei, Orochimaru, had calmly watched as she struggled to hold a firm grip of Tora. She quickly shook her head to erase the bad memories that had resurfaced, Orochimaru had betrayed her, and she will never forgive him. She shifted her attention to the cat. That cat just won't die and was probably older that her. She sighed in relief as Hinata arrived just in time to save the cat.

"Come on team, time to receive our pay," she told them. In truth, all of their D-rank missions were catching Tora the cat, which was one of the main reasons why Naru was pissed. She walked briskly towards the direction of the Hokage's office and barged in.

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama," she gritted her teeth in fury, "I demand a better mission or I'll tear your office down and put every Hyuuga's underwear on display in public," Out of the corner of her eye, Anko eyed Naru's scratch that was given by Tora; at least, what was left of it, it was now completely healed and the only thing that remained of it was a thin line.

Iruka stood up, "Naru, show some respect to the Hokage," before he could continue on his rant, Sarutobi faced him and shook his head. Whenever Naru threatens someone, she made sure she carried out said threat. The last time the Hyuuga's were victims on Naru's pranks, he found out that one of the council head wore heart shaped boxers.

The next day, a four feet tall paperwork were brought in and he nearly died of heat attack when his secretary told him that there were more on the way.

Netherless, he swore that he would try to avoid that experience as hard as he could.

"The most I can offer you is a joined up mission with team 7. Do you guys accept?" he asked, secretly hoping that they'd decline since they didn't really have a nice history with the last Uchiha. Naru nodded enthusiastically while Hinata and Gaara, well they too wanted to leave the village for a while. Suddenly, the door opened and team 7 walked in.

Yakushi Kabuto politely greeted them while Sasuke ignored them. Sakura was shooting death glares at Hinata and Naru. Kakashi raised his hand and said, "Yo," Naru greeted them back and turned expectantly to the Hokage to know more about the mission. "This is a C-rank mission. You are to escort the bridge builder, Tazuna to Wave,"

The door opened and Tazuna walked in. He was an old man and in his hand, he clutched sake. They could see that he was quite drunk. "These are the gennins that are guarding me, huh?" he eyed Hinata, "They're just brats. Furthermore, the blue haired girl looks too weak," immediately, said blue haired girl sent out a wave of killer intent glaring daggers at Tazuna.

Everybody froze at that unexpected impact. Naru narrowed her eyes while Gaara looked disapprovingly at Hinata. Hinata seemed to caught their eyes and she froze like a cat caught stealing a fish from the fridge, her eyes showed fright. She had revealed too much, and for that split moment, everything was silent. Surprisingly, the one to break the silence was Sasuke for he asked Kakashi, in a timid voice, where were they supposed to meet later on.

When Anko informed them that they would be meeting at the borders of Konoha two hours from now, Hinata was dragged by a rather pissed off Naru with an indifferent Gaara following behind. Once they were out of earshot, Naru immediately said, "What the hell were you thinking? You're suppose to be the shy, weak girl, why did you flash your killer intent at Tazuna,"

Hinata didn't like this. She didn't want Naru mad at her. She could feel tears streaming across her eyes. "I-I was angry," she admitted, "You know f-full well that we c-can easily beat a- a jonin without going all o-out. Furthermore, he w-was lying to u-us," she said, and she wiped her hands across her eyes.

Gaara looked at her sympathetically. "You do know that there will be punishments for this," he said. The fright in her looks crawled back but she nodded. "Then, take it out," he said. She choked back a cry and wrapped her hand around her neck, and sighed when she found what she was looking for. She took off a necklace that had the yin and yang symbol on it and passed it to Gaara.

Gaara bit his thumb and swiped a little blood on yang while Naru did the same for yin. They passed it back to Hinata and Naru set a sad look at Hinata. "Don't do it again," she said and hung the necklace on her neck. As soon as the necklace touched her, Hinata screamed. Naru resist the urge to take it off but knew that this punishment was needed. It was a rule.

Hinata choked back a cry, her whole body felt like they were on fire. She knew she had to endure this. It was a ritual to cleanse her sins. She had to at least stand for a day. She took a step forward and immediately, she felt like her legs were sliced off. Naru walked over, offering her a hand and she gladly accepted it while Gaara threw her hand around his neck.

Despite the pain, Hinata managed to give a weak smile as she let her friends drag her to their home.

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Flashback

A young Hinata gazed at the clear blue lake sadly. She felt left out since both her friends were jinchuuriki, so she couldn't understand their pain. It was like they had some kind of invisible bond that she couldn't break through. She stood up and started to practice, trying as hard as she could to keep the current situation off her mind.

After an hour, she could be seen panting heavily in the midst of the forest. Or rather, what was left of it. Out of nowhere, Itachi crept behind her and with a swift chop, he hit her a tenkutsu on her neck and she fell down, immobilized. Try hard as she might, she couldn't bring herself to stand up.

"You let your guard down," was all Itachi said, as if that explained everything. She looked at him warily, unaware of the tears that streaked across her sweaty yet beautiful face. She tried again, to stand up as she used to during her training sessions with Itachi and Naru but she still couldn't stand up.

"Why don't you try a different approach? Where's all your strength?" he asked. Hinata knew that what he said had a double meaning to it. Before she could ask him what he was talking about, he walked away calmly as if the 'conversation' never took place.

She closed her eyes, trying to figure out what did her sensei mean but she still didn't understand. So, an exhausted Hinata lied unmoving at that spot, thinking that she'll just wait for the effects of that hit to wear off. Suddenly, she heard a loud hiss. It was a snake, and judging by its skin color, it was deadly. Panicking, she struggled to free herself as the snake inched closer and closer.

She forced herself to calm down and gathered her chakra around her body, storing as much chakra she could in that limited time. She braced herself before the chakra impact came and revolved around her like a second skin. The force of the chakra caused the snake to hit a nearby tree (or what was left of it), and with a furious hiss, it backed away and left her alone.

Using the chakra, she forcefully reopened her tenkutsu and immediately felt free as a hit of wind came rushing open her. She walked slowly towards the nearby waterfall and without giving any thought of her clothes; she dived into the water to cool herself off. Her thoughts were currently confused and mixed up. What does Itachi-nii's advice have anything to do with her current situation?

She thought back of what happened just now and learned that if she were to put more thought into how to release herself, then the snake incident wouldn't happen.

'Try a different approach,' he had said, and she started to think from Naru and Gaara's point of view. She still didn't understand. Using her chakra, she started walking on the water, climbing the 8 feet tall waterfall.

When she reached the top, she released her chakra and almost instantly, the strong current carried her away. She did nothing to resist, she calmly let the water guide her. She felt herself swept to the bank of the river, her cheeks lying on the solid ground. She sat up slowly and turned to meet the gaze of her friends.

Naru was grinning while Gaara was looking disapprovingly at her like a protective brother as she was really wet. "Are you trying to get yourself sick?" he lectured. Naru gave Gaara an annoyed look and helped Hinata up. She took off her jacket and threw it around Hinata.

Hinata stare at them longingly before falling from chakra exhaustion, she needed some rest. Naru and Gaara traded knowing looks before carrying her back to camp.

Flashback End

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They were ready and were now waiting at the border of the Fire Country for their senseis. As if on cue, Mitarashi Anko and Hatake Kakashi appeared with a poof. Anko raised an eyebrow at Hinata, but if Hinata was in pain, she masked it well as she stared at the ground trying hard not to attract too much attention.

Naru flicked her head at Hinata's direction once in a while, concerned was obviously displayed at this as she rushed to Hinata's side just in time to catch her from falling. Gaara offered to his teacher to guard in front of Tazuna, but in reality, he wanted the position to be behind his friend whose face expression faltered once in a while.

If Kabuto, Sakura or Sasuke noticed this, they didn't say anything, instead chose to keep quiet. Except for the occasionally asked questions from Sakura to Tazuna, the group traveled in silence and tension seemed to be in the air.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi spied a puddle of water and almost immediately sensed the chuunin level chakra radiating from it. He looked up to catch Anko's eye and saw her nod in acknowledgement. Before they could prepare themselves, Gaara gave a casual flick of kunai towards the puddle and immediately, it turned blood red.

Kakashi eyed the red head warily, he knew that Gaara knew that the chuunin level ninjas were there, and he had been unhesitant in aiming to kill them. He turned to see Anko's reaction and she was quite pale. Obviously, she didn't know that her gennin could be this ruthless. "Why did you do that?" Kakashi asked, facing Gaara. Gaara feign ignorance and answered," What's the matter Kakashi-sensei? I was just playing with the kunais," his monotone expression helped his acting as everybody save Anko looked at Kakashi weirdly.

As they continued their journey, Kakashi wondered how much did Naru and Hinata changed as they were in the same team like Gaara and teammates were often influential. Naru walked up to Kakashi and tapped him on the shoulder lightly. He jumped a little as he didn't notice her. "Don't feel bad about Gaara, Kakashi-nii. He's testing you jonins capabilities. He's a nice person, really, now, you're supposed to worry about Tazuna. He's not telling the full truth about this mission," she said.

At that, he realized that he had miss out that specific detail about the true purpose of this mission. "Tazuna, please explain," he said. His team looked at him curiously while Gaara kept up his same uncaring expression and Hinata was trying hard to not look at him so he won't see the pain in her eyes.

Naru noticed the slight trembling Tazuna was showing as he said, "What do you mean?" Anko narrowed her eyes at this. She too could feel the fright radiating from the bridge builder.

"We took care of some chuunin level shinobi just now," Gaara snorted at that but Kakashi continued, "And they were obviously sent to get rid of you. So, please explain," he said. At this, Tazuna looked crestfallen.

Sighing, he explained that Gatou had been terrorizing Waves economy, causing many people to starve. He then explained that if he were to build a bridge, he could get in touch with other countries, and start trading food and other things, boosting up their economy. Gatou, of course, knows of this so he had sent out numerous shinobis to get rid of him.

Anko listened to the explanation closely, trying to detect if there was any lie imbedded into his words. She nodded when he told them the truth. "We will help you only if you promise to give us the original payment after Wave is back on its feet again," she said. Kakashi turned to look at the facial expression on the gennins face.

Sakura look a bit shaken but was willing to follow Sasuke to the end of the world as Sasuke looked eager to do the now A-ranked mission. Hinata still had her head down but he could see that she didn't mind. Naru grinned, she was just starting to enjoy the feeling to be back on the road again while Gaara…was Gaara. He showed neither pleasure nor displeasure at the decision.

"So it's settled. We'll continue this mission," Anko said. Tazuna thanked them before leading them to a boat to cross the ocean. When they saw the bridge Tazuna was building, Kakashi whistled, impressed. They all gave compliments to Tazuna while he boasted that he was the best bridge builder.

As they were nearing the borders of Wave, the mist became thicker. Hinata, sensing a disturbance around the nearby bushes, threw a kunai at it before walking over. She almost cried when she saw it was a bunny with white fur. Immediately, the jonins were alert and Anko, pulling Sasuke and Sakura down, screamed, "Duck,"

Naru, who was had a fast reaction, pulled Tazuna down. If they were 1 second too late, their head would have been detached from their bodies as a large sword came flying out of nowhere at their direction. Sakura shrieked at this. (pfft, some kind of kunoichi she turned out to be) A moment later, a man appeared, holding the hilt of the sword grinning bloodthirstily at the gennins direction.

Team 7 was shaking at the killing intent directing at them while Sabaku no Gaara was grinning a little. Naru groaned, of all people that they met up with, it had to be them. Hinata was still grimacing at the pain but the thought of Haku-chan here was comforting.

"Ah, I see that the Demon Brothers lost. Never mind, they were pathetic," said the voice. A man appeared from the mist. He was a good six to seven feet tall with no shirt on, but a pair of blue-white baggy pants with a Mist hita-ite tied around his forehead with a slash across it with the strap of his sword over his chest. He had no eyebrows whatsoever and bandages covered the lower half of his mouth and nose.

"Momichi Zabuza, A-rank missing nin, wanted for an assault against the Mizukage and also known as the Demon of the Mist," said Anko, gripping her kunai. She looked back at her gennin team, trying to tell them to run away., Zabuza followed her gaze at his jaw dropped in shock as he saw Hinata, or rather Hinata's necklace.

Zabuza immediately turned away from the gennins of team 12, his face pale as though he had seen a ghost. He made sure that Anko and Kakashi were not seeing before flashing a few hand seals at Hinata. To anybody, it seemed like nothing suspicious, but Hinata understood. _I know who you really are, meet me tonight by the lakeside._

At that, he stared at Tazuna for a while before looking at Anko and Kakashi. "Haku, let's go," he said. He didn't care if what he just did destroyed his usual ruthless image that he built on himself, he had found what he was looking for and that was enough.

Haku, who had also saw the necklace, understood very well that it what he was doing was for the best. She gave a polite bow to the Konoha nins before turning to Zabuza, who was looking quite ashen. With a wave, Haku grabbed Zabuza's arm, before doing a hand seal. With a twirl of leaves, they were gone. (Note: Haku is a girl)

Kakashi immediately narrowed his eyes at Anko's gennin. Someone or something had made Zabuza decide not to cross with them. At least for now. The question was, what? What made Zabuza leave? Who was the most suspicious person in the team? He suspected it was Gaara. He had known Naru for quite a long time so it couldn't be her while Hinata is too shy for it. The only one left was Gaara who had mercilessly kill two chuunins. The person he suspected was obvious.

Tazuna cleverly dispersed the silence by suggesting them to come to his house to stay while they protected him. They walked once again in silence, the same question running across their minds. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi had inched away from team 12, leaving Kabuto to walk alongside with Hinata, much to the displeasure of Gaara, though he didn't show it.

As they approached closer to their destination, Anko broke the silence, "When are we arriving," she said impatiently.

Tazuna, fearing for his life (Anko didn't look exactly friendly), told her after a while, "We're here," and led them to a small cottage next to a forest. Naru nodded in appreciation while the rest was just happy that the horrible silence was over. The door opened and a kind looking woman stuck her head out.

"Father, you're back," she said, smiling. Sasuke felt a pang at that as the smile reminded him a lot of his mother. At that, he hated Itachi even more. Naru visibly saddened, the Uchiha massacre jolted into her mind. Hinata looked at her, concerned for her friend. Naru gave a smile but it didn't reach her eyes.

They were led in and asked to rest after having some tea in the living room, all the while listening to Tazuna recounting his stories on his journey from Konoha to Wave to his daughter, who was introduced as Tsunami. In the middle of the story, Naru's sharp eyes caught a boy who was peeking in. when he noticed her gaze on him, he quickly looked away.

"Anko-sensei, can we be excused?" asked Gaara. Anko nodded before informing Kakashi that she was going to sleep. At this, Tsunami jumped a little in embarrassment for not showing their rooms earlier. Naru nodded in appreciation as she was placed in a room with Gaara and Hinata.

Kakashi and Anko were placed in a same room. After hearing that, Kakashi paled considerably. Anko didn't exactly…liked roommates. Sasuke, Sakura and Kabuto were placed in a room beside team 12's room, much to the displeasure of Sasuke while Sakura just said. "I'm going to sleep with Sasuke-kun. Take that Ino-pig," and everybody shot pity looks at the Uchiha. Even Gaara.

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Hinata cried relieved tears as she was in Gaara's embrace. Naru had took off her necklace and was now purifying it with holy water that was sealed in a small scroll. Gaara was feeling awkward since he hadn't hugged anyone before so he was trying hard not to mess up.

As the necklace was pulled up, Hinata immediately felt the effect and she was sobbing tiredly, trying to hold her weight while Gaara had lent a shoulder for her, only to have Hinata wrap her small hands around him. He was getting used to the idea of hugging Hinata when Naru yanked him away to comfort Hinata, not wanting to be left out. Gaara fumbled for a soldier pill in his pouch and passed it to Hinata, which she took it graciously.

Together, they had their lunch in the clearing. Naru had promptly took out some ramen from a sealing scroll when Hinata confessed that they were hungry. They ate comfortably and would make small talks once in a while.

Finally, they were done, and started to shift their attention to what had happened earlier that day. Surprisingly, Gaara was the one who voiced his opinion first.

"He was looking at Hinata," said Gaara.

Naru nodded, a bit grim. "Why did he leave?"

Hinata, taking it as a cue for her to speak up, said, "He told me in our sign language to meet him by the lake side tonight," Gaara narrowed his eyes suspiciously while Naru seemed to be deep in thought.

"It could be a trap," mused Naru.

"We're strong enough to take them on," Gaara replied.

Hinata shot Gaara an annoyed look, "Don't overestimate yourself or you'll turn into someone like Sasuke,"

Suddenly, Gaara didn't feel so good. "Promise me something,"

Naru and Hinata replied simultaneously, "What?"

"Kill me if I start acting like the Uchiha," he said, and Naru and Hinata burst into a fit of giggles.

After taking a calm breath, Naru's face turned serious. "So, are we going to meet them tonight?" she asked.

Both of her friend nodded. "Then it is decided, we'll leave after dinner," she said.

Naru had her suspicions, but if they were wrong, that does that mean- wait, she shook her head. _'Now is not the time to think negative,'_ she told herself. She slipped her hand to her neck, seeking reassurance. Her heart clamed down a little as she fingered the yin yang necklace on her neck. They all had one.

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**J:** Cliffhanger! Now, I finally reached the 10th chapter. Time for the votes (I'm doing this after every 10th chapter to check if you guys want me to continue)…

Do you want me to discontinue the story?

Anyways, a slight hint, next chapter (if I'm still doing it) will be a little info on what's going on with Itachi. Please comment!


	10. Chapter 10

**J: **I'm aiming for 100 reviews, but if I don't reach my goals, then…don't worry, I'll continue writing, it's just a minor goal. Thanks for supporting me!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did, Kyuubi's ears won't be so rabbit-y.

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Haku looked at Zabuza. She had, under the orders of a certain someone, been making sure that he didn't cause any problem. Today, she had met her old friends, Gaara, Naru and Hinata. Naturally, her reaction was one of a surprise. She hadn't seen them for almost one year now. She saw Hinata limping a little and had to resist the urge to help her.

"Haku, let's go. Its time to meet them," said Zabuza. Haku snapped out of her thoughts and nodded.

It was already dark and the moon was hung up high. The stars were exceptionally bright and Haku felt at peace. They walked to the lakeside; Naru, Gaara and Hinata were already there.

Naru glanced at Zabuza, trying to detect any threats. She nodded a little in satisfaction, and as usual, went straight to the topic. "Why?" she said, her hands implanted at the side of her hips.

"Firstly, tell me where you got that necklace," he said, looking at Hinata.

"We all have one," said Gaara passively. He was annoyed that he and Naru were being ignored. Zabuza stared at them in shock, while Haku felt that it was her turn to speak, since she was the only one that fully understands the current situation.

"Zabuza-san, to tell you the truth, I have one too," said Haku. Immediately after that was said, Zabuza turned to Haku, only to find her standing next to Naru. Seeing that she was in a troublesome situation, Haku said, "I'll explain so bear it with me. Firstly, Naru-sama, Gaara-sama, Hinata-sama," she said, and she bowed at them politely.

Zabuza was trying to process the information. Why in the seven layers of hell are those brats being called at such a high degree? Naru pouted a little, "Haku-chan, we told you not to call us that. Now will you explain why you're with Zabuza?" she said.

Haku grinned at the way Naru was so easygoing even in this situation before saying, "I'm here to make sure you don't betray us," she said as she looked straight in the eye of Zabuza.

Zabuza was taken aback. "Betray?" he said.

Haku nodded, she was now tending to Hinata's injuries. "I shall explain from scratch. Two years ago, I managed to escape the claws of, what to be known, the bloodline limit hunt. The Mizukage had felt threaten that the bloodline users were going to betray him and had sent out word to kill them all. Back then, I was still young and did not completely understand the situation,"

"What does this have to do with what's happening now?" asked Zabuza, his face held an annoyed look.

Haku threw him a glare. "As I was saying, my mother had managed to escape, taking me along with her and we found a man who was willing to protect us from the Mizukage. That was shattered when a month later, he showed his true face and was actually working in secret for the Mizukage to flush out the survivors. He killed my mother first before aiming his knife at me,"

"And then," asked Hinata, curious. She was flexing her arm a little, relieved of the previous pain.

"I unconsciously unlocked my bloodline limit and he was pierced through the heart with an icicle. Afraid that I had become a monster, I fled. The days I spent was searching for food, rummaging through other peoples leftovers. I remember that on that particular day, I couldn't find anything to eat, I was so hungry that it hurt to even walk," Haku had a faraway look in her eyes, as if remembering a certain event.

True, Naru and her friends had met Haku, but they had never heard of her past before, so, along with Zabuza, they nudged her a little to go on.

"Itachi-sama saved me. He had found me shivering in the cold and had offered me a chance to follow him. I was afraid at first, that he was like that traitor but lowered my defense when he explain that he was from Konoha. Of course, there was a possibility that he was lying, but back then I was still young," she said.

"He taught me about the world and one day, he said that he had to go to Kumo, to meet up with his students, who he had dump them there to learn some raiton jutsus," At this, Naru was ticked. After all, dump wasn't a word she was expecting from him, "So he laid out my options, to either follow him or go my own way, seeing I was strong enough to take care of myself,"

Naru knew where this was heading, "You went to Kumo and we met up and became fast friends, but one day, you disappear," Gaara and Hinata nodded, wanting to know the truth that explained what happened.

"Itachi-sama gave me a mission. Zabuza had come to him, asking to join our organization and he wasn't sure that he was a trustworthy person. So, he requested that I went along to see if he was worth it," she said. "So, I told him that I would gladly do what he says on a condition that nobody is to know my whereabouts. That way, it'll be easier to avoid spies, and I see that he had kept the end of his bargain,"

Naru didn't know what to feel. She felt overwhelmed. The idea of Itachi not telling her something was painful. It felt like she was betrayed. Deep down she knew that he had a good reason for it but she couldn't shake of the feeling that made her retreat in disgust. Jealousy. It was such a hateful feeling that right now she just wanted to scrub off her skin and jump into a cold pond.

Gaara, who had a sixth sense when it came to Naru, immediately placed a hand on her shoulder for reassurance. Naru responded by giving a small smile, but even Zabuza noticed the slightly pained look. Haku, who was staring at the lake, didn't notice the small exchange behind her back.

Hinata, seeing that everybody was so silent, broke the invisible barrier by saying, "As one of the founders of the yin yang organization, I hereby, by my power, accept you as part of the family," she said, eyeing Zabuza, who was trying hard not to look shocked, and was failing miserably. Hinata started speaking in a weird language while facing the sky and soon enough, the yin yang necklace appeared in a flash of light and dropped it self around Zabuza's neck.

Naru, Haku and Gaara clapped a little. Zabuza was fighting down the urge to blush and said, "Now its time to explain my part of the story,"

"The Kiri civil war had ended and I had failed to assassinate the Mizukage and had cowardly fled the village. I tried seeking alliance to a different village but my reputation as a 'demon' prevented that. One day, while traveling at the high roads towards Bird Country, I met Uchiha Itachi, the fame missing nin who was said to had slaughter the Uchiha clan,"

"He offered me a place in an organization and I eagerly agreed to settle down," he continued.

Gaara snorted a little. Zabuza sounded like he was a retire jonin.

"There was a catch though, I had to be on probation to see if I was worthy to join. Apparently, there was going to be a test of some sort. I guess the test was your purity but I'm steering away from the point. He told me that he had been looking for members for a few years but he had less than 10 members now. The rest of them had been proven to be too evil," he said.

"So, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for accepting me into your group," said Zabuza with a slight bow. Naru nodded in acknowledgement.

"Zabuza, you are free to go anywhere you want now, but when the time comes, you will have to come to us. You will know when, as the necklace will glow," said Hinata. "Now back to reality. Why are you working with that Gatou?"

Zabuza grimaced and said, "It was actually a plan to destroy him from inside out,"

"Then I have a plan," said Gaara. "You will destroy him the next time we meet and I'll tell Anko-sensei that we recommend you to join our shinobi ranks, along with Haku," he said, his eyes flickered at said people.

"Ok then. We shall meet again the day after tomorrow on the bridge and commence the plan," said Zabuza, and with a swirl of leaves, along with Haku, they disappear.

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The next day, Naru 'accidentally slipped' that Zabuza was coming soon to Anko. Anko, seeing the mischievous glint in Naru's eyes, immediately knew that she had planned something. So, with some persuasion from team 7, managed to convince Kakashi to train them. So, here they were standing in a clearing, surrounded by tall trees.

"What are we here for, Kakashi-sensei? Will you be here to teach us some cool new jutsu?" asked Sakura.

Sasuke tried not to look interested but you could see him twitching a little every now and then. Obviously, he wouldn't pass up to strengthen himself to fulfill his goal. Kabuto, on the other hand, had on a neutral face and didn't seem to have mind if he were to learn nothing at all.

"We will be doing tree climbing," said Kakashi. Almost immediately, two burst of killer intent was focused on him. Yes, Naru and Hinata were not happy at all. Kakashi was there on the day they practiced tree climbing. He had even commented on how poor Naru's chakra control is.

In a falsely sweet voice, Hinata said, "I'm afraid Anko-sensei told us that she had to train us on something else," she glanced at the slightly seething Uchiha and continued, "Privately, if I may so add,"

Sakura, upon seeing her beloved Sasuke-kun's disappointment, immediately protested.

Gaara, seeing the situation, tries to solve it calmly. He composed his face before saying, "Haruno-san, I'm afraid that-" only to be cut off by Sakura.

"…and then how is Sasuke-kun going to…"

Gaara, despite this, was not one to give up, and tried again, "Haruno-san, we, as you can see, are in different-"

Only to be cut off. Again.

"…if Sasuke-kun can't take his revenge, then how is he going to spend time as a husband…"

Everybody looked like they were going to puke and Sasuke's face had oddly resembled like a person who was dying.

"Then, we're going to have thousands of babies running around…" as the others spaced out for a moment, they came back to reality only to see that Sakura had started missing the point of the argument and was now giggling like a mad school girl.

Gaara looked like he was going to enter his 'killing spree mode'. He bit down his lip before trying again, "As I was saying, Haruno-san-"

"What?" she snapped, "I'm thinking of my third son's name right now,"

And that was the end for Gaara's patience. He snapped, and turn to his back to plug the cork that was preventing him from using his sand. He ordered the sand to kill the pink hair banshee when he found that the sand didn't seemed to move. He looked around, trying to find if anything was misplaced and saw Hinata, with her palms thrust in front of her, water spinning on her hand.

It seemed that she had watered his sand, causing them to be harmless in the current situation. Sakura, not knowing that she had just escaped her death, said, "How dare you try to hurt my Sasuke-kun," and rambled on.

With a, "Tch," Gaara left, followed closely by Naru and Anko. It seemed that he was a little mad at Hinata. Hinata looked at team 7, bowed slightly before hurrying along to her friends, trying her best to ignore the guilt that was clawing inside her heart.

He was mad. He was mad. He was mad. Mad at her.

Somehow, it hurt more than it was supposed to. She redoubled her pace when she saw the familiar botch of purple hair.

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Somehow, he felt childish of what he was doing to Hinata, but his damn pride just won't let him apologize. He never fought with her before and it was truly a hateful feeling. To hate someone knowing that that someone had done nothing wrong.

If you were to tell him a year ago that this would happen. He will label you as being paranoid and shrug it off, believing, no, knowing that that wouldn't happen. But now look at him. He was overreacting. The normal him would never be like this so why then?

They hadn't talk so much like they used to. There seemed to be so much to do in Konoha that they barely had time to do things together anymore. Was it because he was frustrated over this? Or was it because of something else?

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Naru said, "Gaara, what the hell is wrong with you? You know that Hinata did nothing wrong,"

Anko nodded, concerned where this was leading, "If you were to kill the Haruno, the village council will not be happy and would probably sentence you to death. It's a good thing she stopped you," she evaluated.

Gaara was at a loss for words. He knew that they were right but he pretended to not hear them and headed deeper into the forest.

Naru sigh. Gaara was acting like a brat. Naru turned around as she heard her name being called. "Hinata?"

Hinata stood panting in front of her best friend. "G-Gaara, where is he?" she asked. Naru pointed at the direction in front of her. Hinata nodded appreciating her friend's help. "Can I take off my weights?" Naru nodded, and Hinata unfastened her leg weights and without a backward glance, pressed forward.

"Damn, they mist care a lot for each other," said Anko. Naru grinned. They knew that they liked each other. "Too bad those brats are dense when it comes to things like their relationship," said Anko. "By the way, can you get me those weights, I think I'm losing my touch," she said, glancing at her student.

"Told you that you were old," said Naru, but netherless, she took out a scroll and summoned the weights before throwing them to Anko. Anko caught them and nodded her thanks.

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Gaara ignored Hinata, who was rapidly catching up. He knew that he should have taken off his weights, but a small part of him hoped that Hinata could catch up with him to make him see some sense.

"Gaara! Gaara!" Hinata called out desperately. She walked slowly to him, careful not to make him angry. Gaara was now standing in front of a clear lake and had a faraway look in his eyes.

He turned sharply at her and gazed in to her eyes boringly. "Gaara, I'm sorry," said Hinata. "I'm sorry for not being at your side. Sorry for stopping you. Sorry for making you suffer. I'm sorry…I'm sorry," cried Hinata.

Gaara's gaze softened. He knew that it wasn't her fault. He knew, yet he was stubborn enough to not acknowledge his mistake. "Hinata," he heard himself say, his voice cracked a little, "I hate myself so much. I knew that this was completely my fault yet I blamed it on you. I'm such a hateful person. I'm sorry for making you, Naru and Anko-sensei worry,"

At this, Hinata knew that the barrier he cast around him had fallen and she latched her arms around him and cried in his back. Gaara stood unmoving. _'One day, I'll have enough courage to confess what I feel about you, but until then, please wait patiently,'_ he thought.

After the small outburst, they walk back home, feeling relieved of a huge burden.

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Naru grinned as she saw a smiling Hinata and an impassive Gaara walked out the forest. "Made up, eh?" she asked, her eyebrow raised a little.

Hinata faintly blushed and mumbled a, "Yeah," Gaara looked uncaring but they knew that he was happy about his.

Naru eyed them with a calculating eye. They had a different aura surrounding them, slightly different, but different notheless. "Whatever, you love birds, go to bed early tonight cause tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I told Anko-sensei of our plans and she approved. When it comes to Kakashi, I'll just use my puppy dog eyes so don't sweat it," she said.

Gaara and Hinata blushed and went along with Naru to their room. On the way, they met up with Kabuto and Sakura.

"Yo," greeted Kabuto with a friendly wave. Sakura glared at Gaara, not bothering to hide her hatred towards the red head. Naru nodded at Kabuto before slapping Sakura hardly at her cheek.

The force of the slap came hard and Sakura was sent sprawled to the floor. Sakura hissed in pain. Hinata tried to repress a smirk while Kabuto and Gaara kinda expected that. "How dare you harm me. I'm going to tell Sasuke-kun about this and he'll beat you up," she said, glaring at the blonde.

Naru gave her an icy stare before saying, "Wake up, Sakura. Your precious Sasuke-kun is not going to protect you. How dare you even talk back at me, do you know the aftermath of what happened this afternoon? You are in no position to bitch around. Have you forgotten why we're here? Its because we have to help Wave's economy. That's why!"

Sakura was going to snap back a reply when Inari, Tsunami's son barged in the middle of the hallway. "I was right, so you do think that you are heroes. Well learn this, heroes don't exist. You will never understand my suffering so stop trying to save us," he said.

Naru rolled her eyes. "So you're saying that we should give up on trying and let Wave continue to suffer. Fine, then tell me, if the Konoha's nin weren't here, then what would you do, sit back idly twiddling your thumbs and whistle while Wave dies a little day by day? At least your grandfather's doing something about it, your father did something about it-" (they heard about Inari's father's sacrifice during dinner from Tazuna)

"My father was wrong then, to sacrifice nothing for his life. He-"

Naru growled, effectively cutting him off, "So you're saying that helping Wave is wrong. Then you can go die for all I care. A person that's unreasonable like you doesn't deserve to live," at that, Inari burst off crying into his room.

Hinata gaze sympathetically at Inari before hardening her eyes to glare at Sakura. "Naru, let's go, we're wasting our time here," and they bowed a little to Kabuto before heading to their room.

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Itachi swore as once again, yet another shinobi had proven that they weren't worthy to join the yin yang organization. So far, he had rounded Akasuna no Sasori from Sand, Deidera from Iwa, Hoshigaki Kisame from Mist and Konan and Pein from Rain, and recently Momichi Zabuza from Mist. He gritted his teeth in frustration. He wanted to prove to Naru that he could do this assignment.

He had a month left before he reached the deadline. In a month, he would be reaching Konoha to meet up with Naru. One month seemed so far away. Time was running out and at the same time, was running too slow. He couldn't wait to see Naru's face when he told her that everything was ready. Takeuchikagure was ready to become one of the most famous shinobi village. It was ready to shine.

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**J:** GaaHina romance…so…kyaa!! Anyways, what do you think of this chapter? I know I'm late but I was under a lot of pressure and almost tried to kill myself. Almost, cause as you can see, I'm currently alive and well, thank you. Please continue to support The Rebel!

Have an idea? Then, share it with me! advertisement ( Please ignore, I was being random )

**J:** Anyways, now you have news of Itachi! I kinda explained what the yin yang organization was. Kinda. But its good to keep you readers on your toes so tune in for more secrets that are going to be revealed in the next chappie!


	11. Chapter 11

**J:** Woo! Reached my goal! Once again, thanks for your support! So, I proudly present the next chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. Oh come on, I've been doing this disclaimer thing-y for like 11 chapters...give me a break.

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Gaara groaned as he scanned his surroundings. He was alone in the room and judging by the lack of the banshee voice, he was the only shinobi left in the house. To put it simply, he was left behind. He bit his lower lip, trying to suppress the urge to grit his teeth. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a woman scream.

Quickly, he headed downstairs just in time to see Tsunami being held by two amateur looking samurais. "Let go of me," she said, panic flashed across her face. Inari, who was standing a little away from them, growled.

"Let my mom go," he said, and he stepped one of the samurai's foot.

The samurai jerked a little. "You brat," and he picked up Inari by his short's collar.

Inari trashed and kick but he didn't stand a chance. The samurai was much bigger than him. Out of nowhere, a fist of sand came and punched the samurai, Inari heaved a sigh of relief before glancing around for his savior.

Gaara stood in a loose position, his arms out and his eyes scrunched up in concentration. "Close your eyes," he told Inari. Inari quickly did as he was told. "Sabaku Kyu _(Desert Coffin)_," the sand wrapped the samurai like a coffin and the other samurai dropped his jaw in horror. Inside the sand coffin, came muffled yells. "This death will be painless. Sabaku Soso _(Desert Funeral)_," said Gaara, and the samurai was crushed.

Almost immediately, blood began to spray out of the sand. Tsunami screamed in fright, while Inari was fighting the urge to reopen his eyes.

The samurai who was holding Tsunami, dropped her in fright and quickly turned tail and ran. Gaara caught up with him without breaking a sweat and in a smooth motion swept some blood across his neck and took out his sword. "Shuuri (Crimson Justice)," he said, a hint of edge in his voice. The blade turned red and then it appeared at the samurai's stomach, having ran through it.

With a gurgle of blood, the samurai dropped to the floor and never moved again. Shukaku grinned as he witness his host mercilessly killed the idiotic humans. Gaara gave a nod to Tsunami and left before she could thank him.

Inari's eyes had a determined look as he watch his savior head to the bridge and he decided it was time to stop being a coward. He told his mom of his plan. Tsunami was surprised but she agreed, happy to see him in the light of her husband.

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Gaara glared at Naru as she tried her best to feign innocent while Hinata and Sasuke were fighting Haku, or in Hinata's case, make sure that the Uchiha is unconscious and stall time. Naru was protecting Tazuna and was sheepishly rubbing the back of her head as she saw a pissed off Gaara.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" he asked, his fist clenched tightly together.

Naru twitched a little at the killer intent Gaara was unconsciously giving out. "Erm, Gaara," she looked around, trying to find a good excuse. She glanced at Haku and saw the Uchiha. "He's finally unconscious," she jumped in success, ignoring the horrified look from the Haruno. Then, her mind came across an idea. "Gaara-kun, look, Hinata's in trouble,"

The effect of that sentence was immediate as Gaara whipped his head over the direction of Hinata. Without a second thought, he ran to help her. Naru breathed a sigh of relief. Her plan was killing two birds with one stone. Now that Gaara's gone, she was safe. Add to the fact that if either Hinata or Gaara were to 'die', those jonins won't suspect them so much.

Hinata silently thanked Naru as Gaara came over to help. She had to save chakra for later. She caught Naru's eye and Naru told her of her plan. Hinata sigh a little at her friend's cunningness. Poor Gaara didn't even know that he was tricked. She looked at Haku in the eye and when nobody was noticing, pointed at her neck.

Haku immediately understood what Hinata wanted and threw a senbon needle at her neck and Hinata went into a deathlike state. Gaara noticed the needle's position and gave a nod to Haku.

A few meters away, Mitarashi Anko was trying her best to pretend that she was beating up Zabuza. She glanced nervously at Hatake but he didn't seem to notice. He was concentrating at Zabuza.

"Blood bunshin," Zabuza whispered, as he created a bunshin that could fake his death. He gave his signal to Haku and she nodded. Just in time, Kakashi did the seals for Chidori and thrust it at Zabuza. The 'Zabuza' collapsed and the body was left there.

Haku took a deep breath and started to cry over 'Zabuza's body.

"Haha, I see that the mighty Demon of the Mist has fallen and his whore too," said a voice. Everybody, save for Sasuke, who was still knocked out, and Sakura who was fawning over his 'dead' body, winced at the language Gatou was using.

Gatou was looking at them confidently and behind him stood about a few hundred of rogue bandits.

"Must resist killing him. He'll die later, don't worry," said Naru, who was doing her best to calm herself down. Zabuza's signal went off and Naru grinned. "Finally. Guys, he's mine," she screamed to her friends.

Zabuza, who was hiding, shook his head in disappointment. _'Oh well, there's always the killing to look forward to,'_ he reasoned to himself.

In a yellow flash, Naru appeared in front of Gatou and grinned blood thirstily, causing her three whisker marks to look more feral looking. Gatou resisted the urge to piss in his pants and summoned the courage to say, "I'll give you any amount of money," he told her.

Naru gave a false sugary look and replied, "Sorry, not interested," and then he saw a flash of red and dropped into nothingness.

"Where am I?" said Gatou, as he observed his surroundings.

Suddenly, he screamed as his left leg felt like they were on fire. He glanced at his leg and it was indeed on fire. He used his remaining energy to try to shake off the fire but it was effortless.

His shoulder had a blade ran through and his eyes felt like some kind of bird had plucked them out.

Naru's face was emotionless as she stared at the gruesome torture in front of her. Next to her was an old scale. She looked at it for a while before placing a drop of her blood on one side. The scale tipped slightly and she walked over to Gatou to take his blood. She did the same thing on the other side of the scale. This time, the scale tipped a lot and immediately Gatou's screams became louder.

Naru still had the same blank look on her face as she watch Gatou's soul being eaten by a summoned demon. Finally, it was done.

Gatou didn't understand what was happening to him. He could see his life flashed in front of him.

Flashback

Gatou glanced at his mom in worry. Her body was bruised badly and she also had some whip marks across her back, showing the red bloodied skin. "Kaa-san?" he asked, trying to contain his anxiousness.

His mom, who was sprawled on the floor, used the last of her strength and motioned him closer. He quickly scrambled to her side. "Gatou, promise me that when you grow up you will never be like your father,"

Gatou was confused. "Why?" His father was his role model.

"Just promise me," she said urgently. He nodded, unsure of what to do in this situation. "Good boy, be nice when I'm not around, ok? Remember that I will always love you," she said. With a shudder, she took her last breath and left the world.

Six-year-old Gatou didn't understand what was wrong with his mom. A few minutes ago, his father had said that he wanted to speak in private with his mom. A little while later, he reappeared out of the room looking quite pale. The next thing he knew was that his mom was on the floor like _that_.

He didn't understand.

Now, a forty-six-year-old Gatou understood but it was too late. Too late to fulfill his promise to his mother.

Flashback End 

He looked at his killer in the eye and smiled. "Arigatou, shinobi-san," he whispered and died. Just like that. Naru gave a small sad smile and walked away from the murder spot as Gatou slumped down.

"Your welcome," she whispered into the wind.

"How dare you kill our paycheck," said a man, and with a loud war cry, he and his partners ran forward to exact their revenge.

Gaara took out Shuuri and began to slice down some thugs while Hinata who, with the help of Gaara, managed to take out the senbon, was now dancing away in the middle using some water jutsus to flush them away.

Mitarashi Anko grinned to herself. Loud and bloody, just how she liked it. With a kunai in her mouth and hands, she dashed forward, ignoring Kakashi's advice to think of a strategy first. In the midst of the battle, she met up with Zabuza and grinned. "How many?" she asked.

"So far, thirty-two," he replied, a confident smirk across his face.

"I win, thirty-three," she told him. She threw a kunai in a practiced motion at the thug that was closing in on her and said, "And that, my friend, makes thirty-four,"

"I like your style lady, but that doesn't mean you're going to win," and they took off, determined to outdo each other.

Kakashi sighed at the antics of those two, not even bothering to wonder how Zabuza was alive. "I'm starting to doubt if their jonin," he said as he took down a thug.

"You know, Kakashi-nii, what freaks me out the most is that both if them remind me of you and Gai," said Naru who mysteriously appeared at his side. At this, Kakashi grew rigid with fear as what Naru said was completely true.

Naru watched in amusement as Kakashi spaced out for a moment before returning to reality. She swept a calculating look at the rest of the enemies and said, "Well, only a few hundred more to go,"

"Naru-neesan," cried out Inari.

Naru turned around and saw Inari. Behind him were more or less all of the villagers. She grinned. "Back up," she told everyone. She gave an enthusiastic wave, completely ignoring the blood that was soaking her clothes.

The thugs were having second thoughts about attacking them and being the coward they were, they ran away. "A job well done if I do say so myself," said Naru and she gave a pat on her back.

Everybody present sweat dropped a little.

Then, as if that didn't happen, she turned to Kakashi. Kakashi's spines were tingling and it screamed danger alert. That was proven true when Naru gave her cutest eyes to Kakashi and said, "Kakashi-nii, may Haku-chan and Zabuza-oyaji come to Konoha with us, pretty please,"

Kakashi knew he was in deep shit as his will power was going down at the sight of those eyes. Those big round innocent blue eyes that seemed to grow more pitiful by the second.

Zabuza was twitching as Naru made it sound like she was asking her father if she could keep a dog that she found wandering outside her house. Add to the fact that he was being called Zabuza-oyaji. He was only twenty-eight for god's sake.

Naru was going to use her secret weapon, burst-into-tears, when Kakashi gave a reluctant nod. Inwardly, Naru grinned. She didn't even have to resort to her best weapon and she had already won. "Arigatou, Kakashi-nii," and she took out an icha icha volume and passed it to Kakashi.

Kakashi immediately forget everything and was clinging to the book as though it was his life.

Anko chose to ignore this but with every page he turned, her hand was inching closer to the kunai in her pocket.

"Hear that, Haku-chan, you get to come with us and we can keep Zabuza-oyaji," said Naru.

Hinata looked at Naru and thought, _'Never get on her bad side. Naru is as sly as Kyuubi-nii,' _Gaara, as if he could read Hinata's thoughts, nodded his head in agreement.

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Sasuke glared at Hinata. How the hell were they stronger than The Uchiha. Uchihas were supposed to be the best. He grit his teeth in anger. According to the pink haired freak, he was struck unconscious by Haku and was left out at the entire battle. Needless to say, he wasn't pleased. Uchihas were placed at the front lines, they were not suppose to be unconscious and unable to fight.

Sasuke clenched his fist in anger. He refused to be beaten by dobes. He walked up to Naru and said, "As an Uchiha, I demand you to tell me where you get all that power,"

Naru frowned. "I'm sorry, Uchiha-san, but if I were to take on a student, I would like politer ones so I'm sorry but I refuse to teach you anything," she said, in a sweet voice. Everybody could hear the underlying tone of threat laced into that sentence. Everyone except Sasuke and Sakura.

"How dare you treat Sasuke-kun like that," said Sakura. Sasuke on the other hand, was seething.

"Teach me, dobe," he commanded.

"Uchiha, don't you dare raise your tone at me," said Naru. Hinata and Gaara were watching this verbal fight, amused, as though it was a tennis match.

"What's the score?" asked Hinata.

"Naru-2, Sasuke and Sakura-0," replied Gaara automatically.

Anko felt like cheering for her student while Kakashi felt slightly left out. He was torn between admitting justice and standing on his student's side.

…

…

…

"Go Naru, you better win this thing," he yelled. Kakashi has chosen his side. 

Sasuke, oblivious to what was happening among the audience, sneered and said, "As a clan head, I have the authorities to order someone like you around," he told her.

Naru snorted and said, "I will not teach you and that is final," this time, killer intent came with her words and Sasuke was frozen at the spot.

Anko nervously tried to break the sudden awkwardness, "Come on brats, time to pack your bags cause we're going to leave in twenty minutes,"

The gennins immediately followed her advice while Kakashi went to the fridge to see if there was anything to eat.

(This part/section is dedicated to Akane Cross)

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"Bye bye," waved Inari to Team 12, Kakashi and Kabuto. They (excluding the banshee and emo) waved back and said their goodbyes. "Visit when you have the time," said Inari, trying to resist the urge to cry.

As the villagers watch the retreating backs of the heroes that saved them, Tazuna asked, "So, what should we name the bridge?"

"How about the Wave," suggested someone.

"Zumi," someone else suggested.

"How about the Great Naruto Bridge," asked Inari. Everybody nodded in agreement.

"The Great Naruto Bridge it is then," said Tsunami, and she hugged her son.

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Zabuza and Anko were talking to each other and were both seemingly happy.

Gaara tilted a little to Naru's side and asked, "What are they talking about?"

Hinata was the one who answered, "Their talking about their killing styles. In detail. They're also talking about what they like most about blood. It's rather gruesome if you ask me," she said as she joined the conversation.

Naru nodded her head thoughtfully. "You know, if they were to marry and have kids…" Naru trailed off.

At this point, Gaara looked horrified, "My god, I don't even want to imagine what their kids are going to be like," But the damage was done, and in their minds, they could imagine little Zabuza look-alikes playing with kunai and licking blood at the age of seven. Playing with swords and killing snakes in the winter. Asking their parents to teach them some deadly jutsu.

The gennin in team 12 paled a little at that. "You know what, let's pretend the subject was never brought up," said Naru. Gaara and Hinata nodded in agreement. Needless to say, they never looked at Zabuza and Anko the same way again.

Team 12 sighed in relief as they saw Konoha. "We're finally home," said Hinata and she smiled. Just as she was about to walk through the gates, the chuunin guard asked her to prove her identity. She froze as she stared into the eyes of one of the chuunin guard.

"Hinata, what's wrong," asked Anko, her brows furrowed. Naru looked at the eyes of the guard and realization dawned her.

"Gaara, he's a Hyuuga," she told him. Naru hit Hinata's head, pushing her head down to avoid eye contact.

"Idiot, it's time we go in," she said, trying to act mean, hoping it would snap her out. It did and Hinata immediately walk past the gates, not bothering to flash her ID. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head nervously while Haku and Zabuza hid their confused expression.

"She's with us. She just doesn't feel so well today," said Gaara, in a desperate attempt to cover up the whole thing. The chuunin guard nodded hesitantly. Everybody watched in silence as Kakashi explained who was Zabuza and Haku before passing the gates.

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"…so can you please enlist them as shinobis," said Naru, giving her puppy dog eyes for effect.

Sandaime Hokage thought things over. "Fine, but they will be under the watch of two ANBU members for half a year before I can trust them," he told Naru. Naru pouted a little before agreeing to the conditions.

Before the Hokage could tell them where they were going to stay, Naru had already dragged them to the direction of the NRH. "Come on Zabuza-oyaji, Haku-chan, we're heading to NRH," she said excitedly.

"I'm not even going to comment on that," said Zabuza while Haku stifled a giggle. Gaara sigh and tried to recall how he first felt when he saw NRH. If he was right, he felt like an adopted bunny that was being shown to his pen. He snorted a little and grinned as he saw Zabuza's expression. Oh he definitely knew how Zabuza was feeling right now.

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"Gaara, explain to them where is where and give them some snacks later on. I'm going to check on Hinata," said Naru.

"Why can't we switch jobs," he asked. He didn't really like Zabuza and wasn't _that_ close to Haku either. Sure, they're friends, but Hinata and Naru were closer to her since they were girls.

Naru sigh in annoyance. "Hinata needs a girl. You're too quiet so you won't help her. Much." she said, shrugging lightly.

Gaara saw some sense and grunted before heading to the living room. Naru them walk over to Hinata's room and lightly knocked. She twisted the doorknob and opened the door and the first thing she noticed was the lump on the futon.

She closed the door and sat by Hinata's side. She shook her body lightly. "Hinata, how are you holding up?" she asked. She sighed as she saw Hinata shook her head.

"Tell me. How do you feel right now?" asked Naru.

"Stupid," came the choked, muffled reply.

"Evaluate," said Naru.

Hinata gathered her strength and sat up. Her faced was tear-stained and Naru could see that she was struggling to fight back the tears. "N-Naru, I'm s-so stupid," she said softly.

"Why?" Naru patiently asked.

"Today, when I saw the Hyuuga guard, I had this yearning feeling," she said, as she used her sleeve to wipe off the tears that were threatening to come out, "I hate the Hyuugas so much that if it weren't for you, I'd probably ended up like Sasuke,"

"That bad huh," Naru joked, earning a playful punch in the arm by Hinata.

"Yes," she took a deep breath, "But deep down inside, I love the Hyuuga clan. Maybe it runs in the blood," she said and she sighed. "Naru, I miss my clan. I miss Hanabi. I miss the branch house members that were so nice to me. I miss the Hyuuga clan's surroundings. I miss my room. I miss a lot of things, I guess," Hinata laughed. "Oh what am I saying? I bet that I sound silly don't I?"

Naru shrugged, "Those are words from your heart. They aren't silly. Hinata, I'm sorry to remind you this but this is reality, you're banished from that clan…" Naru's eyes softened, "…but I'll do what I can," she told Hinata.

"Get some sleep, it's been a long day. I'll get you dinner later," she told her.

"Ramen?" Hinata asked, hoping she answered no.

Naru grinned. "Hinata, I'm not that evil. Rice with some sushi," she told her, and she left the room.

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"Ji-ji," Naru said playfully, as she entered the Hokage's office.

"Naru, to what I owe this surprise," he asked, trying to conceal his curiosity.

"I would like to have a talk with Hyuuga Hiashi, as a clan head," she told him. The Hokage stared at Naru in shock.

"As a clan head? Naru, I don't know what you're talking about? What do you mean?" he asked. Inwardly, he was panicking. _'How in the seven layers of hell did she find out?' _he thought.

"Don't feign ignorance. What I mean is the Namikaze clan," she told him. Her eyes flashed a brief red.

Sandaime, shocked, could only reply, saying, "Very well then. Is tomorrow afternoon fine with you?" he asked. She nodded,

"By the way, Hokage-sama, no one besides the Hyuuga head is to know that the Namikaze clan head is still alive," she told him. "If word slips out, I'll destroy all that is precious to Konoha," she said, and she left.

The Sandaime Hokage could always reply back by asking her what could a gennin do but he could feel the Kyuubi's chakra, add to the fact that her tone meant business. He decided that he would just sit back and watch how the whole thing plays out. Not to mention that he had to ask someone to keep an eye on Naru.

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"Anko-sensei," Naru said, as she nodded her head in acknowledgement.

Anko didn't understand what just happened. She was planning to ask for a week worth of leave to train her gennins when she had accidentally stumbled across the fact that Naru was the last member and clan head of the Namikaze clan. "I trust you heard nothing at all," asked Naru. Anko could only nod in reply.

As Naru started walking away, Anko called her, "Naru, why are you doing this,"

Naru stopped walking and said, "I have to repay something for my frien-, no, my sister," and she started walking away again.

"You knew I was listening. Then why didn't you-"

Naru glanced back and smiled, "Because you're my sensei. I'm suppose to trust you," and she walked away.

Anko slumped down the floor. Years ago that had been exactly what she had said to her sensei, Orochimaru and look how she ended up now. She vowed there and then to keep Naru's trust. She refused to let Naru suffer the same thing she did.

With a determined expression, she walked in the Hokage's office, and instead of asking for the one-week's leave, she said, "I would like to take a two week's worth of leave. After that, team 12 would like to have an A-rank mission," she told him.

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J: Done! Yeah! Hope you guys like it so keep supporting me!

Hint in next chapter: Ayumi's appearance

Hope you enjoy this chapter!


	12. Chapter 12

**J: **I am not really happy with the response I got but the show…ehem, I mean the story must go on.

**Ayumi:** Ayumi is appearing in this chapter. Yeah!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did, Kushina-san would be alive.

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"Anko-sensei," whined Naru as she plopped down to the ground. Gaara and Hinata wordlessly followed her actions. "I'm beat,"

Anko grinned. "Nah, this is just the warm up," she told them. She grinned when she heard groans from them. She had started their training about a week ago. Now, she instructed them to strap on a rock equivalent to the size of a grown Akimichi and walk around the village 100 times.

To them, it was easy but add to the fact that they have yet to find the time to take off their other weights, it was hell. Anko, who knows of that, had already gave them a full schedule, and instructed them to do other exercises, taking off three quarters of their day.

Anko, who found out that she was a bit rusty, had politely asked them to teach her some jutsus to increase her arsenal. They readily agree and had also thanked the gods that Anko didn't demand jutsus from them like the Uchiha.

"Raiton: Anheki _(Lightning Release: False Darkness)_," said Anko as she shoot twin forks of lightning from her sleeve. She grinned as she saw she managed to hit it at quite a distance. She had learned this technique from Hinata and was currently working on how to perfect it. Who knew that Hinata had some offensive jutsus in her arsenal.

"Anko-sensei, how many days do we have left?" asked Gaara. It had somewhat become a tradition to ask everyday, for how many days are left.

Anko grinned cheerily, an action that scared the trio out. "Don't worry brat, a week to go, that's all," she told them. At that, Naru fainted.

Ten minutes later

Naru woke up, only to hear noises emitting near her. "…Anko had been throwing paralysis kunais at us, setting traps on our daily basis, trying to make us 'immune' to fire, battling large snakes weaponless, climbing the Hokage mountain without using our legs, throwing us down a cliff and expect us to cling there for a day…" recited Gaara.

"Guys," Naru called out. They immediately surrounded her, concerned.

"Naru, what were you doing? Normally you would be the last one to pass out," Hinata scolded.

"Oh, that. I'm working on a seal and it kind of took most of my time so I haven't had a meal for two days," Naru said. Hinata nodded. She had already known that, being the medical nin of the group. She was merely checking for things she had not noticed. "Oh, where's Anko-sensei?" Naru asked, looking around for her crazy teacher.

"She decided to give us a break. Tomorrow's our last day of that torture and we'll be off to an A-rank mission," Gaara told her. Naru flashed him a smile.

"I wonder who will be our client and what kind of people we'll meet. I hope that I'll be able to advance my studies of medicine. You know, if we go to Takigakure, I'll be able to get some of those herbs I wanted to make a new type of medicine. Then, Suna won't be such a bad idea too. Maybe I'll be able to find some of Sasori's research of poison and further my creation…" at this, Hinata trailed off.

Naru and Gaara sighed simultaneously. Trust Hinata to start acting like Kakashi in a bookstore of porn when it came to medicine. Though, Gaara's expression hardened when she mentioned Suna. Hinata noticed this and immediately apologized to him. He shrugged it off telling her not to worry about it.

Hinata sunk into the nearby tree, deep in thought. When was the last time they had such intensive training? She grinned as she recalled the days they spent in Iwa.

Flashback

"Itachi," Naru whined. Hinata and Gaara threw a glare at the raven-haired person that was standing in front of them. Itachi was eyeing them like nothing happened when they had many scratches and grazes on their body due to Itachi's crazy training.

"Are you doing this just to see us suffer, or for making us stronger," Hinata asked. She was grumpy, as she hadn't had a bathe or a decent meal for three days. Gaara was equally pissed, but managed to restrain himself from voicing his thoughts.

Itachi chew on a pocky stick, seemingly unaffected at the killer intent directed at him and said, "Both I guess. Though more on the torture side,"

Naru growled and lunged at him but with a hand seal, he added more weight to her seals, causing her to drop down on the floor midway. Itachi barely had time to conceal his amused smirk when Hinata shot him with a Suiton: Bakusui Shoha _(Water Release: Exploding Water Shockwave)_. Water came out of her mouth, soaking him from head to toe.

Itachi look at her before dispending into a puff of smoke. "Shit, it's a kage bunshin," called out a barely standing Naru.

Gaara scanned the area and saw an amused Itachi standing on the branch of the tree eating a pocky stick. "Suna Shigure _(Sand Drizzle)_," He focused on the sand that he had scattered around the area and sent it on offensive mode to the lazy looking Itachi.

Itachi watched calmly at the incoming attack, swallowed his pocky, before leaping up, saying, "Katon: Karyu Endan _(Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Missile)_," The fire dragon clashed against Gaara's sand and the sand turned into glass at the touch of the flames, much to Gaara's disappointment.

Hinata was just about to throw another Suiton jutsu at him when he strengthened again the weight of their seals, rending their body useless against him. "That's enough for today," he told them, once again chewing on his pocky.

They just couldn't understand why they weren't able to catch him unaware. He answered their unasked question by saying, "Teamwork,"

"Huh?" came Gaara's brilliant answer.

"True that you are close friends, but you have yet to work with each other in mind, only in body," he told them.

Naru swallowed his words of wisdom with a dumbfounded look and said, "I hate it when you give us riddles,"

He chuckled and told them, "Training is over for today. For dinner, you are to only eat fruits and vegetables," and then, he left.

Flashback End

_'Not only was his training tough, he had also complete control over what we eat.'_ Hinata recalled.

She glanced over her blonde friend and wondered what was wrong with her. She had been acting weird ever since her little…outburst. "Naru, you're sleeping early today, right?" she asked, hesitantly.

Naru gave her a foxy grin. The type that made you slightly wary of what she was planning. "Of course," she told her. As much as what she said seemed truthful, Hinata couldn't shrug off the fact that something was wrong with her.

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Flashback

"Hiashi-san," Naru greeted as she saw her friend's father.

Hyuuga Hiashi was a man full of pride and rarely schemed behind someone's back. He was the type of person that tends to do things out rightly and honorably. But that all changed when his wife passed away from a rare form of leukemia that the medic nins couldn't heal. Since then, he became more arrogant and dishonorable.

He wasn't different towards his daughter Hinata. She had reminded him more of his wife than himself. That was one of the reasons why he couldn't act like a proper father around her. Hanabi, his younger daughter, leaned towards his side more and only possessed the look of her mother. She also had the air of nobility and her superior attitude reminded him of his father. He could honestly say that he had loved her. Had.

Now, his daughters were tools to him in further advancing his clan's reputation. That, of course, had changed when Hinata befriended the resident demon of the village. He started viewing her as a disgrace. Putting aside the fact that she knew a few things of herbs and medicine, Hinata was useless. She was weak in genjutsu and ninjutsu. Her taijutsu of the Jyuuken was that of a weak child. Unfit to be the next heir of the clan head. So, he banished her.

Now, he was sitting on a table, facing the demon that was said to be the Namikaze clan head. The Sandaime Hokage had told him that the demon, Uzumaki Naru, was actually the Yondaime's daughter and was now the clan head of that famous Namikaze clan. He had refused to meet her at first but the Hokage's hard glare told him that he had no say in the matter.

"What do you want?" he asked bluntly. Usually, he would make a big round, asking how was the person's life and talk about trivial matters and finally concluded by asking why that person needed to speak with him; but he figured that a demon like her, clan head or not, deserved no such respect.

"Good, straight to the point so I won't need to waste my time," Naru responded. She placed a scroll on the table before rolling it to him. Hiashi watched the scroll in interest and saw, on it, was one of the strongest blood seal ever created.

"That is created by the Yondaime Hokage," she told him. "It's one of the strongest, as you can see," she said, and eyed him cautiously. "I will now prove that I am of Namikaze blood,"

With a quick bite on her finger, she swiped her blood on the scroll. At first, nothing happened. Then, the scroll started emitting a warm blue glow.

"B-But, Y-Yondaime-sama never left a child," cried Hiashi.

Naru snorted. "Obviously, that statement is false," She gave him a few second to swallow the fact before saying, "Now, that I have proven my identity, I have a…request," At that, Hiashi piped up. "I would like Hinata to stay at the Hyuuga compound for a month,"

Hiashi looked outrage at her request. "No,"

Naru wanted to strangle the idiot but instead, she gathered her composure and calmly told him, "If you don't, I will develop a seal to disperse the juin jutsu _(Hyuuga Branch Family Seal)_,"

Hiashi looked dumbfounded for a moment before looking at the completely serious face of Naru. "That will be impossible for someone like you," Naru gave him a hard glare. He thought over what she had said and noted the complete seriousness in each sentence. Hiashi maybe cold but deep down; deep, deep down, he had a heart, though he barely used it. "Fine then, if you can come up with a seal before chuunin exams, I will allow her to stay for a week,"

Naru would have said thank you, but she was too prideful. So instead, she told him, "Consider it done," and she walked out and left.

Flashback End

Naru glanced at the glowing kanji for seal that was written in her blood on the scroll. She was starting to get frustrated at the progress she was going. She was currently sitting on the floor of the jutsu library located next to her bedroom.

The jutsu library was restricted to outsiders. It had a total of five sections. The first one was the ninjutsu section, followed by the genjutsu section and the taijutsu section. The fourth section, which was called the inner section, was basically a big table. It was a place that absolutely demanded silence. The purpose was for the people to study the scrolls that that they had chosen and study it.

The last section, the fifth section, was the restricted area. The restricted area was for people who needed privacy in creating a certain new jutsu or technique. No one was allowed to go in there unless the creator of the technique declares that the jutsu is finished. Which was where we come back to where Naru was. She was growling at the half finished seal that just won't do what she says. She had checked every single kanji at least thrice and yet it still wasn't working as she had planned.

She stool up and rolled the notes of her studies and sealed them into a scroll just in time to hear Hinata calling her. "Naru, we're leaving,"

"Give me a minute," she called back and hurriedly walked over to the kitchen and started grabbing her ramen and stuffing them into her traveling bag pack. She then headed her room and loaded her pockets with kunais before walking towards the door.

"Hinata," she said, giving her a friendly nod. Gaara walked over and they traveled together to the Hokage's office.

Knock.

Naru's eyes twitched a little at Gaara's antics. "Gaara, no need to be too polite," and without announcing her arrival, she swung open the door, not  bothering to acknowledge the damage done to the Hokage's secretary, who was just about to open the door when an unknown force sent her flying out.

"Oh, you're here," Anko said, before walking over to ruffle Gaara's hair affectionately. Gaara grunted before slapping her hand away. Anko smiled and turned back to the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, if you may explain our mission,"

"Ah yes. Though, I'm hesitating to send a team of gennin to an A-rank mission. After all, even chuunin rarely gets sent to an A-rank mission. Are you sure you're up for this?" he asked, his eyebrow rose at the expression Naru was giving.

"Of course we want to take this mission. After all, we didn't go through Anko-sensei's insane training for nothing, right?" Naru's tone implied that she didn't want any arguments.

The Hokage nodded, disappointed that he had fail to dissuade them. "Well then, the client wants an assassination done on a certain kunoichi,"

"Who is the client?" asked Anko.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. It's a certain shinobi that goes by the name Rei Ansaru," he told them. Seems that he wasn't strong enough to beat the kunoichi, which is also known as the Lightning Cat in the bingo book,"

"Lightning Cat?" repeated Anko, amused at the name given to the kunoichi.

"Her specialty are lightning jutsus and she moves like a cat," he told them. Hinata sobered a little at that. Water, after all, wasn't strong against lightning.

"Ok then," said Anko as she glanced at the gennin team behind her. "Let's go now," and without waiting for a reply from the Hokage, who couldn't believe that they were really going through the mission after he gave the briefing, she led them to the borders of Konoha.

Team 12 was quite laid back about the whole thing. Sure, they'd probably meet some difficulties along the way but they weren't ordinary gennin, and Anko was no ordinary jonin.

After traveling for five hour straight, Anko stopped them. "It's going to be late, we'll camp around here tonight," Naru and Hinata gave a nod while Gaara wordlessly followed their actions. "Gaara, set up the tents. Naru and Hinata will look for food. I'll be preparing the fire," she told them.

Her gennins gave a nod to show that they were satisfied with their jobs before carrying out their tasks. "Oh, by the way," Naru said, catching everyone's attention, "I brought ramen and marshmallows,"

Anko blinked at the information she had just received. Then, much to Hinata and Gaara's chagrin, she grinned and said, "Good, we'll have those and some meat you manage to catch for tonight,"

Naru laughed and scurried away at the sight of her friend's reaction. Dinner was definitely going to be fun tonight.

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"Find me…please…find me…I don't want to be alone anymore…"

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Naru scowled. She was looking all over for food and her efforts were fruitless. Until now, all she could find was some berries. It seems that animals rarely appeared around the area she was in. That meant that Hinata would probably find more food than her. Naru's scowl deepened. She trudged at the moss below her feet and walked at a relatively slow pace, stopping once in a while to look for food that were edible.

Naru grinned. "Not so bad if I do say so myself," she said to herself. She had managed to look for enough food to make a decent dessert. She was about to head back when she heard a noise. She immediately shoved all the berries into her pouch and approached cautiously to the intruder.

A pale girl stumbled out of the bushes. She had long yellow hair, the color that was slightly lighter than Ino's. Her eyes were a deep blue and it sparkled under the starry night. She wore a long, white battered dressed that was over her knees. Her eyes met Naru's for a split second before she passed out. The girl was estimated a year younger than Konohamaru and judging by her features, she was in serious lack of food and water.

Naru felt…weird. She had this odd feeling that made her feel like helping the girl. She blinked back a surprise before making her decision. Carefully, she slid her hand around the girl's tiny body and noted the lack of weight before hopping through the direction the camp was. Boy, were they going to be shocked.

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Hinata immediately switched to medical mode as she saw the battered and bruised girl that Naru was carrying. She frowned as she saw the lack of minerals in the girl's body. "Where did you find her?" asked Hinata.

"The forest of course. Where else did I go?" Naru answered.

Hinata shook her head. "No, give me a more specific detail,"

Naru folded her arms below her chest and said, "She kinda walked out from a bush and collapsed in front of me," her cheeks turned a little pink from embarrassment.

Hinata's brows furrowed as she took care of the more serious damage on the girl's body. "She looks like she's been abused or something," she commented. Gaara and Anko, who could do nothing in the situation, shrugged before going back to prepare dinner. Hinata gave an approving nod and what she had just done before asking Naru to hand her a soldier pill to replenish her chakra.

"Wow, her injury must be serious for you to use that mush of your chakra," Naru said before looking over at the girl.

Hinata grimaced. "I still have chakra left but I just want to refill it, that's all," she said.

Naru gave her an unsure nod before carrying the girl in one of the tent. "She'll sleep in my tent today so I'll take first watch after dinner," she informed them.

Anko nodded. "I'll take second watch and then Gaara and Hinata will guard for the remaining four hours,"

Hinata and Gaara nodded and went to sleep after their dinner. Anko stretched a little before following them, leaving Naru alone. Naru glanced at the forgotten berries in her pouch and shrugged. She took one out and threw it into her mouth. She had a feeling that tomorrow, something big will happened.

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Naru pressed herself forward as she saw the borders of Kumo. "We're here! We're here!" she chanted.

Gaara, who was carrying the still unconscious girl, was looking less enthusiastic while Hinata let out a sigh of relief. Anko grinned. "Kumo's dango, here I come," she said, as she pressed herself forward to match Naru's speed.

Naru, being the competitive person she was, pushed herself to the limits. She reached the Kumo gates and break herself before telling the chuunin guards there that she was on a mission. They nodded and granted her access. She waved at the purple hair woman and screamed, "Let's play hide and seek," and took off without hearing Anko's reply, knowing that she had a head start.

Naru grinned as she looked back and couldn't find her teacher. She ran across the streets and bumped into someone. She blinked once before apologizing. "Oh, I'm sorry," Before she could continue what she was doing, a pair of strong hands clamped around her mouth. Her eyes widened. She had lost a lot of stamina today for running so much.

Her mind wandered to the particular memory of Itachi saying, "Rule no 1 of being a shinobi: Never let your guard down,"

She inwardly cursed as she was dragged into a deserted alley. She was about to bite her captor's hand when she heard that familiar voice. "What are you doing here?"

The hand that was covering her mouth loosened its grip, not that Naru noticed. The only thing her mind could register now was the fact that she was staring into the familiar eyes of the Sharingan. After what seemed like eternity, she managed to whisper, "Itachi,"

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**J:** Cliffhanger. So, how do you like this chapter? Please show some support! A 'good work' is fine to me too!


	13. Chapter 13

**J:** So, after the long, painful await, I present the next chapter. (Sorry for taking a long time)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did…. (insert images)…

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"Let me go," she said as she struggled away from his grip. He dropped his arms back to his side before glancing at her. She blinked back curious eyes as she wondered, "Did you grow taller?"

He ignored that question. "What are you doing here?" he asked in his usual toneless voice.

She raised an eyebrow and shot back at him, "Is it really that weird that I'm in Kumo? Gaara and Hinata are here too, along with Anko-sensei, our jonin teacher, we're here for an A-rank mission," Itachi merely shrugged after the small information, much to Naru's chagrin. She turned away from him and tiptoed a little, trying to see the small group of people behind him, which she had failed to notice until now.

It took a while, as Naru wasn't exactly tall for her age. In fact, she was a midget. Itachi, seeing her obvious distress, stepped to the side a little. Just as she was about to say thank you, he said, "I see that you still haven't grown yet," Naru glared at him but quickly shifted her attention to the new yin yang members.

Before she could utter a word, a tall man steeped out from the small group. Naru almost danced at the sight of him. "Kyuubi-nii," she exclaimed.

Kyuubi gave her a grin before saying, "It's been a while brat," Naru pouted a little. At the side, Itachi smirked. Kyuubi walked next to a blonde haired, pony-tailed guy who looked, according to her opinion, weird. Just as he was going to explain who was who, two figures jumped down to their spot.

Hinata smiled as she saw her friend, completely oblivious to her surroundings. "Naru, NARU! We found you! And guess what, Gaara says that Itachi-nii is here too," she said, her smile turning to a small grin. Gaara almost slapped his forehead in annoyance. Almost. Hinata looked around a little and saw Kyuubi. "Am I interrupting something?" Then, she gasped as she saw Itachi at the corner. "Hello," she waved a little.

Naru coughed a little to get her attention. "Hinata, I found them, or rather, they found me and Kyuubi-nii is now going to explain to us who the new yin yang members are," Hinata blushed a healthy red as she apologized.

A teenager, probably the most impatient one among them, stepped forward and gave a boyish grin. He had feminine looks and a hairstyle that looked like Ino's. He waved his hand a little, showing off the mouth that was in his hand before saying, "I'm Deidera from Iwa. I hope we get along well un," Naru laughed a little at that, causing Deidera to frown, "Why are you laughing?"

"Nothing. I'm just happy that we can add another girl into our group. After all, besides Hinata and Haku, there are no other female members among us…" she said happily.

Silence.

A loud laugh emitted from the tallest person in the group, followed by suppressed chuckles. The figure emerged form the shadows and his skin was blue and resembled to one of a fish. "I like your blunt attitude kid. Name's Hoshigaki Kisame. This is Samehade," he said, pointing to the large bandaged blade strapped to his back, "By the way, Deidera's male," at that Naru and Deidera both blushed out of embarrassment.

"I do not look feminine," Deidera said hotly, causing another round of laughter from Kisame.

Naru looked up and grinned to Kisame. "I like you," she looked at the direction of Itachi, "Guess your taste isn't so bad after all," Itachi merely snorted.

A blue haired woman stepped forward, giving off a warm sisterly aura. "That guy is Pein," she said, pointing at a man who had bright orange hair and weird eyes. It took a while but Hinata managed to register the fact that it was a doujutsu, the Rinnengan. The girl bowed a little before introducing herself. "I'm Konan and we're both from Amegakure," she said.

A large, hunched figure walked a few steps in front of them before a deep scratchy voice came out. "I'm Sasori. Akasuna no Sasori from Suna," at this, Gaara flinched a little, "And I'm a puppeteer,"

Naru managed to give a shaky laugh. "Oh, that's cool but puppets aren't really my thing," she turned her attention back to Kyuubi and asked, "Kyuubi-nii, why are you guys here?"

Kyuubi gave a small smile and answered, "We're picking up another member," Seeing Naru's raised eyebrow, he replied her unasked question, "Nii Yugito," She nodded, but Gaara looked horrified. Fortunately, only Itachi detected that little slip up.

Among the midst of reunion, Anko's loud voice rang out, "Naru! Where are you?"

Naru gave a sheepish grin and said, "So, where will we be meeting later?" As Kyuubi was just about to answer, Naru said, "Let's eat ramen and don't forget to henge on a disguise. After all, you're all S-class missing nins," Kyuubi snorted a little. He was a presumed, sealed demon, not some amateur S-class missing nin. "Come on, Kyuubi-nii. Time to come back,"

Kyuubi heaved a sigh as Naru did a line of hand seals before sticking a seal on his arm. He waved his goodbye to the members before felt his chakra pull him back to his cage. He heaved another sigh as he observed his surroundings. He was back to the illusion forest that Naru had conjured up for him so he won't feel so lonely. "Let me out whenever you can brat," he mentally linked.

Naru merely replied back a yes before saying bye to Itachi. "See you guys later," she waved and Gaara and Hinata trailed after her.

"Gaara, your story…isn't so bad," Itachi said softly. Gaara's eyes widened a little at the praise. His brain immediately reminded him of the day he gave 'Junko Takeuchi', the book he had written in his spare time, to Itachi, who was starting out his journey.

Gaara resisted the urge to smile as he said in his usual monotone voice, "Of course," Hinata and Naru merely glanced at each other before saying something that sounded like, "Boys," simultaneously.

As he watch the three small figures leaving, Itachi felt a small sense of longing. It was purely luck that he'd bump into them. "So Itachi, what are we going to do now?" came the raspy voice of Sasori.

"Deidera, Pein and Konan will look for the Raijuu. It's located underground of the Thunder Shrine in Kumo but it's difficult to bump into it. Pein, you're in charge. Sasori, Kisame and me will be looking for Yugito and see if she managed to pass the test. We'll meet you guys after we're done in the Thunder Shrine," Itachi said. After the order was issued, everybody nodded and went their separate ways.

Kisame grinned as he hung Samehade on his right shoulder and said, "Raijuu huh? Isn't he a weasel?" Sasori and Kisame threw wary glances at Itachi. Itachi, after all, meant weasel. Itachi must have noticed as he shot a glare at them. "I heard that Raijuu's symbol is lightning," he continued.

Itachi nodded. "Then, I'll guess I have to be the one then," They nodded. "Let's go,"

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Anko grinned cheekily as Naru walked over to her. "How is she?" Naru asked, enquiring about the little girl that she had found in the forest.

Anko lied her on the bed. They had just met up a while ago and Gaara had suggested booking a place to sleep for the night first. They agreed. So now, they were standing in a fairly normal size bedroom, glancing at the girl who was wrapped tightly by a thick blanket. Naru suddenly grinned. She walked forward and bent down to the level the little girl was and poked her cheeks a little. "She's so cute isn't she?"

Hinata frowned, "Naru, it isn't wise to disturb her. After all, she's unconscious,"

The girl stirred a little as she stretched a little and yawned. Hinata secretly smiled. She looked like a little kitten.

"She's awake," Naru said, ecstatic. "Ne, what's your name?" The girl sat up and gave a curious glance around the room. Naru laughed sheepishly. "Oh, I'm Uzumaki Naru, that's Anko, Hinata and Gaara," pointing at them respectively.

The girl sat up, her eyes opened for the first time. Naru stifled a gasp. The girl had no irises, she was blind. Yet, her eyes resembled Naru's, just a shade lighter. "Nice to meet you, I'm Ayumi," she said cheerfully.

Anko, at that split second, admired the little girl that seemed fragile as she sat on the edge of the bed. She had yet to give up on life.

Naru walked over to her and said, "I found you in the forest yesterday. How are you?"

Ayumi gave a huge smile as her hands managed to find the way around Naru's waist and hugged it tightly. "Arigatou, Naru-onee-sama, for saving me," Slowly, she loosened her grip and said, "I wish I could see all of you. Naru-onee-sama, I bet your pretty," and she smiled again.

Gaara almost smiled at the girl's naivety. He bet that if he said that they were criminals, she wouldn't even bother to run away. _'She's just been awake for ten minutes_ _and I'm already starting to grow on her,'_ he realized.

Naru smiled at the girl again before looking at Anko. "Anko-sensei, we're going out later. I heard that there will be a festival later, so can I go?" she said with puppy dog eyes.

Anko sighed. "Fine, but you better bring back some sake,"

Hinata smiled. "I'll even make a medicine for your headache tomorrow," Gaara snorted. They both knew that Hinata was just using her as a test subject to see if the medicine she made was effective. In other words, she had just gotten Kumo's residence herbs and is just waiting for the opportunity to develop a new medicine.

Naru looked at Ayumi, who was feeling up her surroundings, and said determinedly, "Anko-sensei, I want to train her," Anko gave her a weird look. "I want to teach her to be a kunoichi,"

Anko could see that Naru was completely serious about this but shook her head. "I'm sorry but I don't think that you can handle her by yourself,"

Hinata stepped forward and said, "Then me and Gaara will help her, right?" throwing a pleading look to the redhead. Gaara blinked a little before nodding.

Anko sighed. She knew that she was defeated. "Ayumi, do you want to become a kunoichi?" she asked, throwing a look at the little girl.

Ayumi looked around for the source of the voice and smiled before exclaiming, "Ayumi wants to learn please,"

Naru grinned and said, "Now that that's settled, I'll be dragging Ayumi, Gaara and Hinata to buy kimonos for the festival later. Are you sure you don't want to come, Anko-sensei? It'll be fun,"

Anko shook her head. "I'm too lazy brat, I'm fine as long as you bring back some sake and dango,"

Naru nodded, still uncertain but said, "Ok then. Come on guys, let's go," She held her hand out to Ayumi and smiled as the little girl clasped her tiny fingers around her hand.

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Itachi held his hand up as he saw the incoming messenger bird. The bird flapped its wings before settling comfortably on his arm. He slowly slid the note out of the tube the bird was holding and almost immediately, the bird took off. He read it with one swift look before glancing back at his companions and said, "Change of plans, we won't be having lunch together, rather, we'll be attending the festival later,"

Kisame grinned while Sasori did something that sounded like a groan. "We work hard, play hard, Itachi. What's more, it's a high possibility that Yugito will be there," Kisame said.

"I know, the down side to this is I have to wear a yukata," said Sasori. Itachi couldn't help but nod.

"Come on, shopping isn't that bad," said Kisame. Sasori and Itachi both sent death glares at the shark look alike. "What did I say?" asked Kisame as both of them looked furious.

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Five hours later

Hinata glanced down at the purple kimono that was hung on her body. It was designed elegantly as she ran her fingers across the cherry blossoms that were design on it. She looked at Naru who had just changed. She was wearing a black kimono that had different colors of flowers decorated around it. Simple and classy. At first, Hinata had picked a pick kimono for Naru but Naru had insisted that she had refuse to wear a color as girly as pink.

Hinata rolled her eyes remembering what had occurred an hour ago. She watched as Ayumi confidently stepped out of the changing room, a cute smile adorned in her face. She was wearing an orange kimono that had tiny butterfly designs around it. Naru ran to her, helping her to wear her obi.

Hinata watched as Naru bent down to Ayumi's level. She could see the kunai pouches hidden around her legs. Naru could feel Hinata's eyes on her kunai set and turned to smile cheekily at her. She pointed to her hand and Hinata saw summoning scrolls, then Naru placed a finger on her lips and Hinata nodded in understanding.

Suddenly, the door opened again and Gaara walked out. At once, Naru burst out laughing. Hinata suppressed the urge to giggle herself. Gaara was wearing a dark brown yukata but what was funny was the blush that he had on his face. Apparently, he didn't know how to wear a yukata and had taken a lot of time to study to learn how to put it on.

Gaara looked away, trying to keep his embarrassment at minimal level and said, "Let's go,"

Naru looked at Ayumi and smiled. "Gaara is just grouchy and embarrassed. I wish you could see how his face is right now,"

If it was possible, Gaara's blush deepened. "Can it, Naru," and increased his walking pace.

"Gaara-chan, are you shy?" came the cheeky voice of Ayumi. The effect was immediate as Gaara jerked a little and looked away.

Naru grinned and patted Ayumi's head a little and said, "Ayumi, you are going to be the best apprentice I will ever take on," Naru reached out for Ayumi's hand, making sure she don't trip, "After all, you already posses the cheeky personality that I like," she continued. "Speaking about that, Gaara, your blush is the color of your hair,"

Ayumi tightened her hand around Naru's and said, "Ne, Naru-onee-sama, what color is Gaara-chan's, Na-chan and your hair?" Hinata blushed a little at the nickname Ayumi referred her to.

Naru gazed sympathetically at Ayumi. "Ayumi, I have yellow hair. What do you think about Gaara and Hinata?" Ayumi shrugged and tugged Naru's hand a little, wanting to satisfy her curiosity. "Gaara's hair is red while Hinata is a midnight blue,"

Ayumi laughed. It sounded like wind chimes. "Sugoi, they're pretty colors,"

Naru laughed back, "They sure are," She gestured Hinata and Gaara to come closer. "Let's split up. Gaara and Hinata will go together while me and Ayumi will head that side. Oh and on the way, get some sake or dango," she told them.

Hinata nodded cheerfully and said, "Come on Gaara,"

Gaara was going to follow her when Naru grabbed his arm and pulled him to her, leaning her mouth next to his ear. "Gaara, I just gave you an opportunity to confess so you better appreciate it,"

As soon as she said that, Gaara shook his head, saying, "Wha- I don't like her or anything-"

Naru rolled her eyes at that. "Gaara, even Anko-sensei noticed," Gaara looked away. Naru pushed him towards Hinata and he stumbled a little before turning to look back at her and gave an appreciative smile before running to catch up Hinata.

Ayumi tugged the sleeve of Naru's shirt and asked, "Naru-onee-sama, Ayumi is wondering what just happened?"

Naru laughed and said, "Oh, it just so happens that Gaara-chan likes Na-chan a lot but he just won't tell her,"

Ayumi puffed her cheeks a little. "Does that mean he's a coward?"

Naru smiled, "Maybe, but if I was him, I'd probably act that way too,"

Ayumi pouted, "Uso, Ayumi thinks that Naru-onee-sama is cooler than Gaara-chan," Naru burst out laughing. "Did Ayumi say anything wrong?" Naru shook her head but dropped it when she remembered that Ayumi couldn't see her.

"No, you didn't," she said.

"Oi, chibi, what are you talking about?" came a voice behind her. Naru turned and saw a grinning Kisame along with a glaring Itachi and a boy with dark pink hair. Kisame noticed her staring at the boy and said, "Oh, that's Sasori. He just came out of his shell. I guess you can say that that's his real body,"

Naru nodded a little before looking at Ayumi and said, "Ayumi, these are my other friends. Itachi, Kisame and Sasori,"

Ayumi frowned a little before tasting the foreign name on her lips. "Tachi-chan, Kisa-chan and Sa-chan ka? Ayumi thinks that their names are cute. Do they look cute as well?" she asked.

Itachi twitched a little at his nickname while Kisame held back his laughter. Sasori was once again looking indifferent. "Tachi-chan? That's a cute name." Naru commented. Kisame burst out laughing. Itachi tightened his fist and hit Kisame on the head. He was just about to do the same to Ayumi when Naru told him, "She's blind so don't harm innocent people," that comment stopped Itachi.

Naru looked at Itachi. He was wearing a normal black yukata with no pattern while Kisame had one the color of the sky they were under in right now. Sasori's yukata was a more cheerful image all together as it was a deep crimson color with a tint of black. Sasori glanced at Naru and said, "Pein, Deidera and Konan are on a mission right now,"

Naru merely nod her head. "Oh,"

She grabbed Itachi's hand and pulled him towards a nearby shop. "Firstly, of course, we have ramen," she said. Kisame and Sasori gave a wary glance at each other. From the look of Itachi's face, it ain't going to be pretty.

"Naru-onee-sama, what is ramen?" asked Ayumi.

Naru practically shrieked. "Ayumi, ramen is the best food in the whole wide world. You have to taste it. This is a command from your onee-san," she threw a sickeningly sweet smile at Kisame and Sasori and said, "Of course, you guys will be coming too, right?" Kisame and Sasori, sensing the danger, nodded their head vigorously.

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"Hinata," Gaara called out.

Hinata turned to look at him and smiled. "Do you want some takoyaki?"

"Eh?" Gaara asked.

She laughed. "Takoyaki. I heard the ones they sell there are yummy, let's go," and she headed off to a stall that sold it. Gaara sighed. Nobody told him that telling someone, "I love you," will be this hard. He'd rather battle a kage.

He walked over to her side as she passed him a takoyaki. "Hinata-"

"Oh, Gaara, what are you doing? You're suppose to eat it," she said. She took the takoyaki from him and he gasped in surprise. She took that opportunity to stuff the takoyaki in his mouth. He awkwardly chewed it before swallowing it. Before he could even get a word out, Hinata asked, "So, how is it?"

"It's nice, I guess," he said, causing Hinata to frown. "Anyways, Hinata, I want to tell you something," Hinata was now paying close attention to him. He took a deep breath and said, "Hinata, I-"

His confession was interrupted when Hinata exclaimed, "Ah, they sell dango and sake there. Remember, we have to get some back for Anko-sensei," she blinked a little before realizing what she had just done and said, "Gomenasai, what were you saying again?" But the damage was done, he had lost the previous courage he had earlier. He shook his head, not trusting his voice. "Anyways, lets just go get Anko-sensei's things," she told him, still unsure about the way Gaara was acting.

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"Let's split up and have some fun," Naru said. Next to her, and enthusiastic Kisame grinned while a seemingly tired Sasori nodded. Itachi merely grunted, which Naru took it as an ok sign.

"I'll go with dull looking here and Itachi can go with Naru and Ayumi. After all, you guys have to catch up with the old times," Kisame said. Itachi glared at Kisame, trying to burn a hole in his head. Leave him with the loud blonde and the little girl that liked to tease him? No freaking way!

If Itachi were to voice his thoughts out earlier, this probably wouldn't have happened.

Ayumi searched for his hand, accidentally grabbing to Kisame's in the process to which she commented, "Kisa-chan's hands are gilly," before managing to grab Itachi's hand and turned to his direction and pouted. "Tachi-chan, you don't want to spend time with me and Naru-onee-sama?" Ayumi pouted cutely. Itachi knew he was going to lose.

He "Hn," and Naru shivered a little, wondering how much alike were the two Uchihas.

"Yay," Ayumi said, jumping a little in glee. Naru smiled, Ayumi reminded her of when she was young. Naïve and innocent. She pinched Ayumi's cheeks a little and laughed. She turned around to tell Kisame something, only to find him and Sasori gone.

"Oh," was all she could mustered to say when she found out she was alone with Itachi and Ayumi. Somehow, the thought of Itachi and her alone enthralled yet scared her a little. Before she could understand her feelings, Ayumi called out, "Naru-onee-sama, we're going to visit some booths first," Naru shook her head a little before running over next to an embarrassed Itachi who was holding Ayumi's hand.

"Coming," she called back, and she ran to them.

If she were to stay there for a second more, she would have heard the innocent comment from one of the villagers in Kumo, "Those kids look good together. I wonder if that little girl is their daughter?"

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Gaara watched the bustling crowd in wonder. The last time he had went to a festival as big as this was when he was in Suna. Of course, back then, it wasn't so pleasant. He swung his legs and relaxed his stiff shoulders, causing Hinata to giggle a little. He turned to look at the beautiful girl beside her and gave an annoyed grunt. She laughed this time and he smiled along too. It was nice to make someone laugh.

They were sitting on a large oak tree, gazing down at the bright festival that was very lively. They had decided to take a break after shopping Anko's stuff. His attention snapped to her as she suddenly said, "I'm feeling adventurous today. Let's go deeper into the forest,"

Gaara nodded and they took off, trying to outdo each other in the terms of speed.

Hinata arrived in a large clearing and exclaimed, "I won,"

Gaara smirked and told her, "Only because I let you," she frowned but brightened when she noticed her surroundings. It was a clearing with a large lake that seemed to shone under the gaze of the silvery moon. Gaara followed her gaze only to smile softly at the scenery that nature painted.

Hinata sat shyly at the edge of the lake and took off her sandals before dipping her legs carefully into the water. She relaxed and felt the cold water tickling her toes. She was enjoying herself when 'splash'. She found herself soaked from head to toe. She glared at the culprit. "Gaara," she growled. He had splashed water at her and she was going to make him pay.

He was going to attack her again when he slipped and fell into the water. "Some shinobi you are," Hinata snorted. She screamed when he pulled her along with him.

"Gaara!" she managed to scream out that name angrily before her head was under the water.

Surprisingly, the water was only slightly above her height so she managed to come out of the water easily. A bemused looking Gaara was already waiting for her on the shore. She growled and tackled him, giving off the impression of an enraged cat. Gaara, who was caught unaware, fell hard on the ground. He too, was soaked, causing his movements to hinder a little.

He raised his hands in a surrender motion and Hinata lowered her attacking stance. He walked over to her and placed his hand on both of her shoulders and said softly, "I love you,"

Hinata's eyes widened as Gaara leaned in to kiss her. It was a gesture filled with different emotions, and Hinata gave in and allow herself to sink into his embrace.

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Ayumi looked over to what she presumed was where Itachi was before asking, "Where is Naru-onee-sama?"

Itachi looked around before telling the little girl, "She went to buy something,"

"Tachi-chan, how did you meet Naru-onee-sama?"

Itachi then proceeded to tell her of how the Sandaime Hokage had asked him to train her, leaving out the details that Naru was a jinchuuriki. Ayumi merely nodded a little. "Then why are you still with her after training her? Don't you have other works?" she said. Before he could answer, she smiled slyly, "Or is it you like her?"

Itachi choked a little before hitting Ayumi's head, "Brat," he muttered. "If you must know, I'll tell you. Don't make ridiculous assumptions," Ayumi was going to ask what assumptions mean when he said, "It all started on the day we came back to Konoha,"

Flashback

It was the night of the Uchiha massacre and the assumed criminal, Itachi was going to be killed for killing the Uchiha clan. (Chapter 6) Naru had informed him of a plan and he had agree.

"I have an idea," she had said. "I don't think that the villagers will ever completely accept me so I propose to leave when something big happens," Gaara nodded while Hinata tilted her head a little. "I want to make a hidden village of my own,"

Itachi raised his eyebrows a little at her declaration. "Itachi," she continued, not noticing her friend's confusion. "Can you collect members and test them? I only want people who can see underneath the underneath. I want to give missing nin a second chance in life,"

Naru then sighed when she noticed how far fetched the idea seemed. It sounded like a good idea when she thought of it but when she said it, it sounded… impossible. To her amazement, Itachi asked, "I'll hear it,"

Naru piped up and grinned, "I want you to collect members and name yourselves the yin yang organization,"

"Why yin yang?" asked Hinata.

Naru snorted, "Cause it sounds cool," Itachi, Gaara and Hinata sighed simultaneously. "Anyways, Kyuubi-nii can follow you and then you also have to capture the bijuu," Naru walked over to her jutsu library and tool down a small scroll form the shelf before passing it to Itachi. "Here, this is a Namikaze scroll for sealing bijuus. It seems like my clan is quite famous for these stuff,"

"We'll evolve the yin yang organization to a big village that will be more famous than Konoha and where jinchuurikis will be safe from abuse, won't that be cool?" Naru said. And in that instant, she had caught his interest.

He knew he would do anything to fulfill that dream.

"I'm in," he had told her, and she had smiled at him happily.

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Ayumi smiled as she heard his story, "That's nice, Tachi-chan, but you seemed love struck rather than realizing your dream,"

Itachi snorted and was going to protest at that fact when Ayumi asked, "Ne, what color is the sky?"

As soon as that was said, Naru came over. "Sorry for making you wait, I went to the local shrine to buy something," saying that, she hung a necklace around Ayumi's neck before doing the same for Itachi. "There, it's suppose to have some protecting abilities, I have one too," and she grinned. She looked towards the horizon and exclaimed loudly, "The sun's coming up,"

"The sky's so pretty," Naru sighed softly.

"Blue," Itachi told Ayumi. "The sky's a beautiful light blue,"

Ayumi hmm-ed and asked again, "Naru-onee-sama's eyes. What color is it?"

Itachi's face flushed a little, remembering his first thought of Naru. _'What is the color of her eyes,'_ he had wondered. "Same like the sky," he told her.

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**J:** Done. R&R please. Thanks for everyone who reviewed.


	14. Chapter 14

**J:** Ok, I know I have been gone for long, but… you know what, I won't bother you. Just read and then read my reasons after the story.

**Disclaimer:** Too tired to do it. Just look at my past chapters.

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Deidera scowled. Damn that weasel. It had once again managed to shock him and Konan and the only who was having a fair chance of winning was a tired Pein, who was barely hanging on, having wasted chakra on helping save the people in the Thunder Shrine. Not to mention the fact that of all days, it had to be fucking raining. A thunderstorm no less.

Things were suppose to be easy. There wasn't supposed to be that many shrine maiden hanging around here since it was the start of the festival. But the temple priest just had to organize that particular day to stay back and clean the shrine. So they were at disadvantage when Konan had to start wasting her chakra on healing the injured people, having been the only one who knows medical jutsus.

Then, he only had limited use of his clay as it was a public area. "Lessen your damage," Pein had said. Now that he thought of it, he should have rolled his eyes back then. Then, Pein just had to act hero and all and took quite a blow from Raijuu from protecting a seven-year-old child who was passing by.

And then, a few minutes later, of all things, a thunderstorm came. And that was when they had remembered that Itachi had said something about Raijuu being the God Of Lightning. And it was then that Deidera knew they were in deep shit.

Deidera quickly molded his clay bird, hopping on it to avoid an incoming blow from a ball of lightning/fire. Raijuu seemed to like rolling himself into a ball and then attacking his enemies. He growled as his sleeve caught a little of the fire. He tore off the sleeve and landed next to Konan, who seemed to be preparing a jutsu. By the looks of it, it was something big. "Pein, stall," called Konan.

Pein emotionlessly nodded and shoot some random wind jutsus at it, hoping it will stay on air. Apparently, Raijuu was smarter than he let on and swooped down to Konan, who was blocked by a grinning Deidera. "Art is a bang, un," he had whispered, and the spider clay that he had implanted on Raijuu a few seconds ago, gave out a loud bang, and Deidera cackled in satisfaction.

Pein, despite the serious situation, couldn't help but shake his head.

Konan gave a rare smile as she was finally done. Just in time, Itachi ran over from god knows where and said, "He's mine,"

She merely nodded and mouthed back, "I know," before saying, "Bijuu Fuiin," and pulled Raijuu, who was now thrashing violently, into Itachi. Slowly, but surely, Raijuu was pulled towards Itachi, like a magnet.

After what seemed like forever, Raijuu disappeared into Itachi's body and Konan and Itachi both fainted.

Pein was the first to move, sweeping a silent gaze at both of them before picking Konan up, asking Deidera to do the same with Itachi. Deidera nodded without complain and instead, asked, "Why Itachi though?"

Pein knew he was talking about the Raijuu, so he answered, "Probably because his affinity is lightning too and the fact that Itachi means weasel," Deidera gave him a funny look and resisted the urge to stick his tongue out. Pein was annoying in a weird sense of way. He was quiet. Not the that's-how-my-nature-is quiet, but rather the I'm-quiet-cause-I-know-it annoys-you quiet.

And it was frustrating.

"So, where are we going now, un? Meet up with Sasori and Kisame or head back to the hotel?" Deidera asked.

And he received no reply.

"Oi, Pein," he called again. He would like to believe that Pein didn't hear him but he knew better.

"Pein," he called out one last time, before turning away with a huff once he didn't receive any answer.

Pein barely suppressed a light smirk at Deidera's actions. He reminded him so much of the younger Konan, who would try to pester him to satisfy her curiosity. They had both been victims of the war and could only rely upon each other. Until now that is.

Deidera merely pouted as he followed an indifferent Pein who was now lost in a thought.

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Naru stared impatiently at Anko. Gaara and Hinata were glaring at their teacher. Ayumi was assigned somewhere to do a few simple chakra control exercise. The busy night was over and it was time for them to do their jobs. Which is also the reason why Team 12 was so frustrated. They were 'asked' to just stand on a lookout and were pissed. Shinobi their caliber was not suppose to do simple jobs.

Anko had gave them a briefing that consist of one sentence, "Just look for her and tell me when you see her, and no sudden actions,"

And before anybody could object, Anko was gone with a poof of smoke. Naru frowned and looked suspiciously at Gaara and Hinata. "What happened to you guys last night? Is it me or are you both… closer?"

Gaara looked away while Hinata blushed light pink. "A-Anyways, are you really going to obey Anko's orders?" asked Gaara, slightly stammering.

Naru knew he was trying to change the subject but didn't press it. They would tell her when they were ready. She frowned, and then a few moments later, her frown deepened. "Listen to Anko? Who do you think I am?" she said. Hinata gave a small smile and Gaara sighed in annoyance. "Of course I won't listen to her. If I did, then I wouldn't be Uzumaki Naru now, would I?" and she gave a huge grin.

Hinata folded her arms, "Then what are you planning to do?" Naru opened her mouth but Hinata cut her, "Wait, don't tell me. I think I can guess. You're probably going to look for some trouble and we're going to get caught and we'll be in more trouble and at the end you're going to do something about it and everything will be alright again,"

Naru laughed, "How did you guess?"

Gaara gave her a hard look but there was a hint of playfulness in his eyes, "That's what always happened. It's like a routine,"

Naru gasped in mock horror. "Gaara-kun, are you saying I cause trouble? Hinata-chan, aren't you suppose to be on my side?"

Hinata smiled, "It's because of the trouble that we are on your side. Life is never dull when you're around,"

Naru raised her eyebrows, "That and the friendship?"

Gaara nodded, trying to hide his smile, "That and the friendship," He confirmed.

Naru laughed and took off, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's look for our target and cause havoc," And without a backward glance, Hinata and Gaara followed her.

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Nii Yugito was at the top of her game. She was swift and agile, not to mention extremely dangerous. She was everything a kunoichi wanted to be. And yet, when she walked in the door of her kage's office, she was only greeted by sneers. And that's when she tells herself, 'I'm not going to give them any satisfaction,' and the cat in her agreed.

Yugito was a no nonsense person. So when she was facing the Raikage, she took off her ANBU mask and folded her arms together. "What do you want?"

The Raikage grinned and Yugito had to refrain herself from hitting him right there and then. The Raikage was power hungry and would do anything to achieve his goal. Yugito loathed him. Especially when he smiled. He said, "I've caught word that some Konoha nin were assigned to assassinate you. Be on guard. Wouldn't want our top card to go down now wouldn't I? Of course, you wouldn't lose easily," and he laughed.

Yugito blinked hard and replied, "That was the reason you interrupted my nap?" and she walked away in a flash.

The Raikage grinned lecherously, "Yes, she wouldn't go down easily," and he laughed. His niece would never lose to those bunch of losers like Konoha.

Yugito sighed as she pressed her back against the door of the Raikage's office. She took a step forward and then another and walked to her house. There was no need to rush. There was plenty of time. She passed the graveyard and stopped. She wanted to go back now, but decided against it. Nekomata needed this. She closed her eyes and started walking. She knew her way by heart as she opened her eyes only to find herself face to face with her mother's grave.

She sat down and pulled her legs together and rested her head on her knees. She stared and wondered why she was here.

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Naru found herself staring at the graveyard. Why was she here? What made her want to come here? Why is the graveyard so big? Why was she asking questions when she was supposed to be looking for answers? And most importantly, why did her heart felt so heavy?

Her team had split up to cover more grounds. And she had felt a pang of sadness as she saw the way Hinata and Gaara looked at each other when they split up. It was so private and she felt left out. They had always been her best friends, and not being included was lonely. She could always speak up, but that could spoil their relationship. And that was when she found herself unconsciously walking in the graveyard.

Again came that question. Why was she here? Maybe she wanted to pay her respects to the decease. Maybe she wanted to see the people who would risk their lives to save their home. Maybe she wanted to find the answers to all her questions. Maybe. There were too many maybes.

Naru walked around the graveyard and paid her respects with every step she took. Her steps came to a stop as she saw a young woman in ANBU clothing in front of a grave. The grave was huge but wouldn't have stood out if the woman wasn't there. She walked closer and lightly tapped the woman's shoulder. The woman jumped and Naru gave her a warm smile and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Yugito blinked as she stared at the girl in front of her. She carried herself in a very relaxed way, like there was nothing to worry about in the world. And she decided that she was interested at this girl, since she was obviously a kunoichi. "You're not from around here, aren't you?" and she grinned, revealing her sharp teeth that looked much like a cat. And that was when Naru knew that this was the person she was looking for.

Yugito, as if losing interest, turned to the grave, and Naru saw the sadness she was trying to conceal. "I'm Nii Yugito. Resident jinchuuriki,"

Naru's eyes widened and Yugito braced herself from the distrustful eyes. But Naru merely laughed and said, "So?"

Yugito turned her head away, determined to look anywhere but at the girl. "I'm Uzumaki Naru," she heard the girl say. Yugito wasn't sure if she would like to get to know Naru. She was different. Different was bad. Different meant changes. Yugito shut her eyes, wiling with all her might for this Naru person to leave her alone. She was in control a few moments ago, now, it felt like Naru had the grasp in the situation. And she didn't feel like the ANBU she was anymore.

Naru could feel the insecure feelings radiating from the woman beside her. Wordlessly, she sat down next to her. "Are you Lightning Cat?" she asked in a business like tone. She stared at the cat mask that was hung on her ANBU uniform.

Yugito piped up. Business. Business was normal. Familiar. And above all, something she could deal with. "Yes, I am," she said, regaining some of her logical senses.

Naru shifted a little, trying to be more comfortable. "You know something? I was sent to kill you," Yugito was up in an instant, her body was on alert. Naru laughed. "If we were to fought here, who would you think would win?"

Yugito shifted into a stance and replied, "I will. I'm in my element," And she grew more confused when Naru asked her to sit down. "Why should I believe you? You're from Konoha aren't you?"

Naru frowned. "Sit down," she said, but it sounded more like a command. Yugito was about to attack when Nibi protested, and Yugito hesitated before sitting down. Naru smiled, as if nothing happened. Yugito wasn't so sure what was going on. She was a child for god's sake. Nibi wasn't responding, which was quite rare for her. "Your bijuu, its Nibi no Nekomata right, since death is her element?"

Yugito paused for a while, and said, "Yes," and then there was an awkward silence. "Aren't you suppose to kill me?" she asked, curious of Naru.

Naru grinned. "Yeah, but I decided against it,"

"Why?"

Naru stared at Yugito's mother's grave for a while before asking, "Can you tell me your story? The story that you have lived so far?"

"And if I don't?"

Naru said nothing.

Yugito lied down on her back, not understanding why was she so relaxed near a potential killer. She pondered a little, "The day I was born, was the day my father died. Maybe it was a trade of life; his for mine, but there was an accident in his mission. My dad was no one special, just a chuunin who didn't stand out. My mother hated me," at this, she looked at her mother's grave.

"She thought that you was responsible for her husband's death?" asked Naru.

"My father was no one special, but my mother was. She loved him more than the world. The reason why she became the Raikage was because he asked her to. And so, she blamed it on me for I had my father's looks. She thought that I ate his soul, or something like that. And that was when she summoned Nibi no Nekomata and sealed her in me. Before she died, she declared her brother the next Raikage and told everyone that I was a demon,"

"My uncle is very greedy. Once my mother died, he started changing lots of things. The village became poor because he took most of the money. The ninja ranks don't dare to defy because he's strong and he has me," the last sentence came out as a whisper but Naru could hear it. "They think that he has the power to release the bijuu inside of me,"

"But they don't," Naru said in amusement.

Yugito shook her head. "I don't know,"

"He doesn't have the power over you," Naru said in confidence.

"Yes, he does," Yugito said, shaking her head.

"Why are you with him?" Naru asked, placing a hand on Yugito's shoulder.

Yugito shook it off and buried her head in her knees, "I don't know,"

Naru sighed as she watched her friend, at least, to what she considered a friend, wallow in insecurity. "You grew up too fast," she whispered. "All jinchuurikis do,"

Yugito kept quiet. "Stay here, I'll be back," and Naru was off.

Yugito wondered why was she taking orders from Naru. But the girl had listened, and had not shunned her. And she had seemed so understanding, but what if it was just a trick to kill her. "**No, she could have killed you when she wanted to,"** came the voice of Nibi.

Yugito almost cried out in relief. "Where were you the past hour? And what are you talking about? I'm ANBU, she'd probably a gennin, maybe chuunin,"

**"Do not be deceived by appearance. She's a jinchuuriki. The jinchuuriki of Kyuubi no Yoko,"**

"Wha-"

**"She could have easily release some of Kyuubi's powers to defeat you. I was never a match for Kyuubi, he was too... cunning,"**

Horror was etched into her face as realization dawned her, "But she's just a girl," she told Nibi. The cat in her didn't answer. She hesitantly placed one of her hand on the seal that was on her shoulder. "And she understood my pain,"

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Naru squat down to face the furry orange animal. "Please," The orange animal folded his tiny arms together and looked away. Naru pouted but the fox wouldn't look at her. "Sato, please help me find Hinata and Gaara,"

The fox, Sato, shook his tiny head stubbornly. "The last time I did a favor for you, I missed out on pork night,"

Naru laughed. Sato was the smallest summoning but was a pro at finding people. He was tiny and adorable but was a pig head that was trying to be nasty when he was really a big softie. "What are you laughing about?" Sato snapped. Naru began to cry, attracting attention from the villagers. Normally, she would be laughed at that she was still a crybaby at the age of twelve but she was short and was mistaken for nine.

Whispers was spread that the fox bit her and Sato became uncomfortable. "Ok, stop crying please, I'll do anything,"

Naru stopped crying and everybody walked away. She picked up Sato and squeezed him. "Thank you," and she dried her tears. "By the way, those tears weren't real," and she laughed at the expression on Sato's face. Sato was going to back out on his promise when Naru started sobbing.

"Ok, I get it," Sato muttered. "Always bullying the little one," and he took off.

Naru sat down on the nearest bench. She would wait for him to come back. A breeze blew by and a person sat next to her. Without looking up, she addressed him, "What are you doing here, Itachi?"

"This is a public place, and how did you know that I was Itachi," Naru looked at him. He didn't look like Itachi. Probably henge into some guy so he wouldn't be recognized.

"Well, for one thing, I'm used to the way you sneak up on me," she said. "How's life?" she asked.

Itachi hn-ed and said, "Konan helped seal Raijuu in me,"

Naru immediately stood up. "What? How could you not inform me of this sooner? So it was a success? How many more to go? Have you found where Sichibi is? Are your plans, or should I say my plans, going to be delayed?"

"It just happened last night. It was a success. Four more to go. Yes. No," he said as he pulled out a Pocky from seemingly nowhere.

Naru sighed. "It feels like I'm causing a lot of inconvenience," Itachi didn't say anything. "I'll try to convince Nibi," she said. "I met Yugito, the jinchuuriki at the graveyard a moment ago. She had a harsh life."

Itachi was silent.

Naru rolled her eyes. "Did you see my performance with Sato just now?" Itachi nodded. "Are you trying to ignore me?" A nod. Naru stuck her tongue out at him. "Did you know Hinata and Gaara tied the knot?" she asked, trying to put on a happy face. "I'm really happy for them,"

Itachi looked at her. "About time. And yet you're sad," he stated it as a fact.

"Am not," Naru pouted. Itachi didn't say anything. He stood up and was gone. Naru closed her eyes and placed her hand over her eyes and sighed. "Am not," she said, reassuring herself.

She almost screamed in shock as Sato suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Here they are," he said, gesturing his tiny hands towards her friends.

Naru gave her brightest smile. "Thanks Sato," and Sato was gone in a puff of smoke. "I found her. Follow me. I'll tell you the situation along the way," Hinata and Gaara nodded and they both followed her. "Lightning Cat is a jinchuuriki so we need her. But that will complicate things. I suspect our client isn't who we think he is," she said.

Hinata hesitantly asked, "How's her life?"

Gaara's eyes hardened, knowing the answer before it was spoken. Naru refused to look at her. "The usual," she replied.

And then, they were standing in front of the graveyard. Oddly, Hinata and Gaara didn't comment on the place. Naru walked in, followed by an impassive Gaara and a slightly quiet Hinata. And there she was. Right where Naru left her. "Yugito," and Yugito jumped a little, not shock by the fact that she had managed to sneak up on her, but shocked for the fact that she had spoken her name.

Naru gestured to both of her friends. "This is Hyuuga Hinata, heir to the Hyuuga clan which your village tried kidnapping a few years ago but she wasn't home," she said pointing at Hinata before shifting to Gaara. "This is Gaara, youngest son of the Kazekage and jinchuuriki of the Ichibi. Was banished from Suna and now a part of Konoha,"

Yugito blinked. She looked to Hinata and said, "I'm sorry for my village's past actions," and then to Gaara, "Wow, you're a jinchuuriki too," and her eyes flickered back to Naru. "And you're the cage to such a powerful demon and yet you're so young," she said, as she studied Naru closely.

Naru laughed. "Me and Kyuubi-nii are good friends. We kind of look out for each other," Yugito didn't say anything. After all, she, too, was good friends with Nibi. Naru looked at Gaara and sighed, "Wish I could say the same thing for Gaara," Hinata too, glanced at Gaara and smiled.

"Yugito, let us tell you our aim," Hinata said, sitting down in front of Yugito. Gaara wordlessly sat beside her and shyly placed his hand on top of hers. Hinata merely smiled at him. Naru, too, gave a small smile before sitting in between of Hinata and Yugito.

"Our first step is to collect all the bijuus. We have Gaara who hosts Ichibi no Shukaku. Hoshigaki Kisame who hosts Sanbi no Isonade. Konan who hosts Yonbi no Sokou. And of course, Naru who hosts Kyuubi no Yoko," said Hinata.

"They just sealed Rokubi no Raijuu in Itachi yesterday night," Naru said quietly. Hinata's mouth opened in shock. Gaara raised his eyebrows. Yugito frowned. Wasn't Itachi an S-rank missing nin? Naru ignored them and continued, "He told me when Sato went to find you. He's doing great. At least I think he is. He was extra quiet. But maybe he just wants to annoy me," Naru said, and she frowned.

Then she suddenly stood up and stared in shock at seemingly nowhere. "He was doing that on purpose. He was doing that on purpose." she chanted disbelievingly. Yugito thought it was better not to ask. And Hinata and Gaara didn't say anything as they were used to her behavior. "He was making fun of me and I didn't notice," she gasped in horror. Then she grinned, "This means war," she looked back at her friends, "You tell her. I have a score to settle," and she was gone with the wind.

There was an awkward silence. "What was that about?" Yugito asked.

"Naru's mood swings," said Gaara. "They're as unpredictable as the direction of the wind," he said. Hinata nodded in agreement. "You'll get used to it after a while," he told her.

Hinata gazed at the direction Naru took off and looked at in fondly, "She's so enthusiastic," and laughed. Gaara fought back a smile, and Yugito could feel that Naru was their sun that they revolve around.

Hinata then turned back to their explaining, a trace of amusement in her eyes, "We go way back with Itachi. He trained us before we were gennin. Our jonin teacher is Mitarashi Anko. We like her a lot. She's fun to mess with the head but Itachi has a special place in our heart," continued Hinata. And Yugito understood. They were a gennin team. A team that would risk their lives for each other. A relationship she had longed for a long time.

"Once we have collected all the jinchuurikis-" said Gaara and was cut of by an excited Yugito.

"Does that mean me?" she said, trying to conceal the longing look in her eyes.

Gaara tried not to look sympathetic and nodded, a hint of amusement on his lips. "If you would join us. But let me explain the situation to you first," he said, and Yugito calmed down, surprised by her own outburst. "And then, we'll leave Konoha," came the whisper. But Yugito's ears were sharp and she caught it.

"Of course, Naru, being the person she is, will be wiling to give them one more chance to appreciate her," said Hinata, who was smiling without humor. And then, unexpectedly, she snarled. "They don't deserve it," Gaara lightly patted her hand and Yugito could feel their strong bond.

"We already know their answer but Naru insisted that there was a chance," said Gaara, shaking his head, "But she's too stubborn in admitting it,"

"By the end of the chuunin exams, if they don't appreciate the chance, we're going to Takeuchikagure. A village that we asked Wave to help us build," said Hinata, and Yugito could see the way her eyes shine as she spoke of how beautiful and calm the place was. And Yugito knew that she too had fallen in love with the place.

Gaara took over, "We will live there and no one would hate us, where there will be peace. And of course, we'll accept missions to earn our living. It'll take a long time until that happens, but we both fell in love with Naru's vision when she told us about it," he said.

Yugito was overwhelmed and she took a moment to digest the information she was given. "That sounds too good to be true," she whispered.

Hinata glanced up and smiled, "That's what we thought too. There will definitely be a lot of problems in our way but it's worth it," she said.

Although she would love to be a part of the plan, Yugito wasn't convinced that it would all go well. The world was full of evil and to live in a place like that would be impossible. There would be people who would be corrupted. Too many things could go wrong. But then again, what did she have here in Kumo? She was merely a puppet to her uncle.

Gaara was patiently sitting on the floor, closing his eyes and meditating while Hinata was chewing her bottom lip nervously, a habit that she hadn't get rid of since young. She knew it was risky, to directly ask Yugito like that, but…

"I'm in," she said, so quiet that Hinata barely heard it. "I have nothing here so why not take a crazy chance?" she continued.

"I was sure you were going to say no. What made you change your mind?" asked Hinata.

Yugito grinned. "I want to be there when history changes. And I have nothing here. And most of all, you have an interesting leader," she said, and then she laughed. "Of course, don't tell her that I said that. She has a big enough ego as it is," she told them. Hinata and Gaara shared a smile.

Gaara nodded. "She's a good leader, but she shoulders too much," he told her. "But she can still joke so I guess it's ok then,"

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Naru observed her prey on top of a tree, making sure she kept a distance. Her prey was smart, but she was smarter. At least she think she was. She frowned doubtfully, momentarily distracted. She decided that she'd bother about this later. She was busy now. She turned and growled, he was gone. A side of her asked her to stay alert. She ignored it. And that was her mistake.

In a second, her hands were pinned and she was slammed into the tree. She groaned as her captor spoke. "What have I thought you about tracking enemies, not that I'm one,"

Naru rolled her eyes but then again, they weren't really facing Itachi so he couldn't see them. "To always mask your chakra no matter how weak your opponent is. Never underestimate your enemies," she recited. Itachi nodded and reluctantly freed her. Naru glared at him and he lift one of his eyebrow.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"Just now, you were making fun of me, weren't you?" she said, her hands automatically went beside her hips. Her eyes met into a deep frown.

Itachi chuckled in amusement. "Sit down,' he said, lightly patting to the sit beside him.

Naru was hesitant. "Ok," she said, still unsure. And she walked extra slow, making sure he didn't make any sudden movements. Itachi's face was emotionless but Naru was not troubled. If it was any other person, she would panic, but this was Itachi. The guy who trained her and her caretaker since young. She trusted him with her life. So she sat down, making sure to keep a small distance.

"How's life in Konoha?" Itachi asked. It would have sounded normal to anyone but Naru knew Itachi. He was good at hiding his emotions.

She relaxed her muscles, trying to ignore the fact that she knew Itachi was tense. His eyes would close a little longer once in a while to ease up the mind without anybody noticing. Then again, she wasn't just anybody. She was Uzumaki Naru. And so, she told him. About what happened after they attended the academy, how was his brother doing, their gennin test, their stupid D-rank missions, the horrifying training regimen, and surprising herself, she told him about the bet with Hiashi. And he laughed, saying that that sounded exactly what she would do. To accept an impossible challenge.

She had grumbled a little but inwardly, she wondered why she told him that. It was suppose to be a secret. But then again, now that she had told someone, her shoulders lightened a little and she felt better. She had rummage her bag pack and taken out her work so far. She was great at seals but she needed a second opinion.

Itachi was careful to check everything and was giving her some suggestions. After all, he knew a great deal about seals too since he was the one that introduced her the art of Fuuinjutsu and was studying more about the seals in his clan.

And as time passed, Naru had forgotten the reason why she was there and was completely absorbed in the art of sealing, convinced that this she could help Hinata.

Itachi observed her determination and was proud to call her his student. He laughed when she made a careless mistake, and then, when he was sure she wasn't paying attention, too obsessed with her seals, he grimaced and lightly touched his stomach, trying to ignore the fact that he was in great pain. He closed his eyes and curled his fist, enduring, and he watched his prize student chatting and smiling away as she tried to picture the delight on Hinata's face when she was going back to the Hyuuga compound.

And Itachi found himself smiling a little every time she would say, "She's going to be so happy,"

Naru didn't notice. Or perhaps she did and waved it off as a stomachache, but she was hated herself with every part of her body when Itachi finally toppled over in pain and went unconscious. And then, he fell. And Naru panicked and dived down after him, barely in time to catch his body, which was already heating up, at least a few degrees higher than normal. But somehow, she did catch him, the seal hanging around the tree. She gently placed Itachi down and placed the seal she was working on back into her bag pack.

And she resisted the urge to punch herself. She was so selfish, so self-absorbed in her own work that she had not noticed Itachi, one of her precious people, in pain. She nearly cried when she saw Hinata, along with Gaara and Yugito, running towards her in concern. She had managed to choke a, "I don't know what's wrong with him," before she found herself temporarily losing the ability to talk.

She barely paid attention as Hinata led her to Yugito's house, Itachi carried by Gaara. And she had watched in blank silence as Hinata stated how hot Itachi was and how his body was suffering from deep injuries. The only thing that was currently registered in her mind was she had could have prevented this from happening if she hadn't ignored his earlier behavior and demanded him to see Hinata.

She walked out the door, trying to get the image of Itachi's pale face out of her mind.

As if by instinct, she walked into the forest. As she went deeper, she saw Ayumi, who was doing the tree climbing chakra control exercise. She bit her lip, trying to regain control of her emotions, and she sat down and observed. She saw Ayumi getting the hang of it and she smiled. The girl had talent. And she idly wondered if that was how Itachi had thought of her when he saw her.

And then she laughed, and it sounded hollow. When she was young, her skills were horrible. There was no way Itachi would think that way.

Her laughed must have gotten Ayumi's attention as she carefully walked down the tree, making sure that she didn't lose her footing. Naru smiled, "I'm here," and Ayumi searched the location where the voice was emitting.

She happily laughed as she grabbed onto Naru's hand. "Got you," and she squealed when Naru tickled her. "Naru-onee-sama, why are you so sad?" she asked.

Naru smiled a sad smile. She wasn't a ninja yet and she could see through people's emotions. "I failed to save someone I care about," she said, as she placed a giggling Ayumi on her lap.

Ayumi was silent, and then she asked, "How's that person now?"

Wincing, Naru replied, "Unconscious,"

Ayumi's face turned thoughtful, "I don't know about you Naru-onee-sama, but if I was you, I'd worry more about what I'm going to do when that person wakes up rather than what I have done. Isn't that more beneficial?"

Naru was quiet, and she pulled Ayumi tighter. "I guess you're right," she mumbled. "Ayumi, what happened to you the day I found you?" Naru asked.

Ayumi frowned, "Ayumi's not sure. Ayumi doesn't remember what happened. But the voices were talking about a place called Konoha," Naru pondered over the information she received and didn't say anything. "Naru-onee-sama, can I learn to see without my eyes," she asked.

"No silly, you have to use your eyes to see. But if you really want, you can learn to sense things that are happening around you if you are willing to train," said Naru.

"Ok," she immediately agreed.

"Before that, I'll teach you the water walking exercise," said Naru, and led Ayumi to a river. And then, she instructed her the way Itachi used to. Ayumi was eager to learn and hung on her every word. "

"Erm, Ayumi, can I leave to go check up on-," started Naru.

Ayumi huffed, "Of course you can. In fact, Ayumi insists," she said. Naru laughed and ruffled her hair. And then she muttered a soft bye and told Ayumi that she was going to pick her up in two hours.

Ayumi nodded like the good girl she was and diverted her attention back to training. Naru gave a last, uncertain wave and was gone.

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**J: **Ok, where was I? Yeah, at first, my computer broke down. Then, once it was better, I started observing other people's works and told myself that it's ok not to update. There's thousands of stories out there that you guys would rather read.

And so, I lost my inspiration to write. If I were to write during that time, it wouldn't be good to read. It would just be a piece of forced out work with no feelings. So, I did nothing and prayed that I'll find my inspiration again.

After that, I started neglecting writing and my computer broke down again. How did that happen? I wonder? Anyways, when I have finally came to my senses, it was year-end holiday. I was browsing through almost everything and I saw the reviews that everybody sent to me. Some new readers who had stumbled upon my work.

And I felt so guilty I wanted to cry.

Because it wasn't fair the way I was treating you guys.

So after my holiday to Australia, I came back, energized and full of inspiration, I decided to write a chapter before Christmas as a gift.

I hope everybody isn't mad at me. It's still hard to look at the past reviews and don't feel guilty. I will continue writing more often and will find the time to write chapter 3. Though it'll take a long time cause I'm more interested in chapter 15…

Ok then, I guess I've typed too much. Merry Christmas everyone!


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